Aston Villa are on course to see Unai Emery’s side reach some impressive milestones this season, with one player nearing a goalscoring record that has stood at the club for 11 years, however, it’s not Ollie Watkins.
Aston Villa are in good stead to secure European football for next season, as Unai Emery’s side sit in fourth place, five points clear of Spurs and eight points clear of Manchester United.
The Villans have overcome a host of challenges this campaign, most prominently with injury plaguing their squad seeing the manager have his adaptability tested.
Despite experiencing three ACL injuries on top of a mound of less severe absences throughout the 2023/24 calendar, the Midlands club still lead the race for a Champions League finish.
The form of key players such as Ollie Watkins, Douglas Luiz and Leon Bailey has significantly bolstered Villa’s quality going forward this term, with one of the three close to breaking a club record.
The record Douglas Luiz could break at Aston Villa this season
Douglas Luiz, a combative midfielder by trade but an outstanding attacking asset to Emery by chance.
The Brazilian is just three goals away from breaking a record held by former Villa talisman, Christian Benteke, telling of his attacking prowess this season.
Having currently scored nine goals at home this campaign, the midfielder requires a tally of 12 goals to overtake the Belgian as the highest-scoring player at Villa Park in a single Premier League season.
If Luiz is to break the record, he would overtake two of Dwight Yorke’s high-scoring home records and Juan Pablo Angel’s tally of 10 Premier League goals at Villa Park in the 2003/04 campaign.
It was in 2012/2013 that Benteke netted 11 goals at home in the league, during a season that saw him net 19 goals in 34 appearances.
How crucial Douglas Luiz is to Aston Villa
It would be a remarkable achievement for Luiz to claim the record, wholly because he is a midfielder.
Not only is the 25-year-old a midfielder but is the deepest line of the engine room, deployed to primarily support the defence, making his goalscoring ability a sublime addition to his quality.
In a season that could see Villa claim Champions League football, seeing Luiz break a goalscoring record could be just as overwhelming, proving how critical he is to Emery’s XI.
The Brazilian is the epitome of an all-rounder, with him having not only the second-highest rate of tackles per game for Villa but also the second-highest goal tally in the Premier League in the squad this campaign, via WhoScored.
It’s difficult to imagine where the Midlands club would be without Luiz, who has shown over the years just how much his game can flourish, with there no definite answer to just how high his ceiling is.
