Aston Villa picked up their first home win of the new Premier League season by coming from 2-0 down to beat Everton 3-2 on Saturday evening.
After Villa’s frustrating defeat to Arsenal last month, fans would have been fearing the worst when Sean Dyche’s side were two goals to the good inside half an hour.
Given that Everton had lost their opening three matches, they were in a world of mess and there was still a lot of time left in the game.
It meant that the Villa Park faithful remained patient and backed their team all the way, before they were treated to a quite stunning finish.
Jhon Duran’s ridiculous winner stole the headlines, after Ollie Watkins’ brace, and secured the points for Unai Emery’s side ahead of their return to the Champions League.
Jamie Carragher touched upon that it has been a very good start to the season for Aston Villa and their only loss came against a Premier League title challenger they shouldn’t have got beaten by.
After the game, everyone was talking about Duran’s goal because it was one for the ages, with England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford beaten before he could blink.
Aston Villa’s official social media account awarded Duran with the Man of the Match award after a fan vote.
But Carragher opted to give it to Watkins instead and how he put the nightmare of Arsenal behind him, as he told Sky Sports Premier League (14/09/24).
The former Liverpool player highlighted the England international getting back in the goals and his ‘outstanding’ partnership with Morgan Rogers.
Ollie Watkins Man of the Match
“It was good for Watkins to get his goal today, but his performance as well with Rogers,” said Carragher. “The start of the season isn’t the way he would have liked individually and those chances he missed against Arsenal in the last home game.
“I am going to go for that man Ollie Watkins (for my Man of the Match). He got the two goals. The combination between himself and Rogers throughout the game was outstanding. He certainly needed that after the last home game when he sat on the bench with his head in his hands.
“What a start to the season. Nine points out of 12. The one game they lose is to a title challenger.”
Ollie Watkins in the Champions League
Watkins played perhaps the most important role in Villa finishing fourth last season after he scored 19 goals and had the most assists in the Premier League with 13.
Therefore, it would be fitting if Watkins starts Villa’s first Champions League game away at Young Boys on Tuesday.
READ MORE: Monchi shares what Jhon Duran really ‘thinks’ about Aston Villa teammate Ollie Watkins
It’s great to see Duran pushing and pushing. He is proving to be extremely valuable from the bench.
But, in terms of starts, Villa have plenty of difficult games coming up where Emery can easily rotate the two from the starting XI.
