Ollie Watkins has established himself as one of the best strikers in the Premier League at Aston Villa.
There is no doubting that Unai Emery has had a huge part to play in Ollie Watkins’ development, with the Aston Villa centre-forward registering 40 goal contributions last season.
Those 27 goals and 13 assists helped fire Villa to the Champions League alongside a run to the Europa Conference League semi-final.
In the summer Watkins showed he can deliver on the international stage too, as he scored a last-gasp winner against the Netherlands to send England to the Euro 2024 final.
Watkins has had a luke-warm start to the new campaign, drawing a blank in the first three games of the season before a brace against Everton got him off the mark and he has Jhon Duran breathing down his neck after three goals off the bench.
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Ollie Watkins goal contributions at Aston Villa show he is irreplaceable
Watkins can consider himself very unlucky not to have scored on his Champions League debut as he had a goal cruelly ruled out by VAR for a debatable handball decision in the 3-0 win over Young Boys.
Duran has grabbed the headlines this season with his heroic displays off the bench and thought he had done so again against Young Boys but he too saw his goal ruled out for a handball in the build-up.
Despite Duran’s contributions off the bench, Watkins remains Emery‘s main man and Villa fans were concerned to see the 28-year-old icing his ankle after being brought off in the 60th minute on Tuesday night.
Watkins did provide a bizarre assist on the night, being upended by the Young Boys goalkeeper as he read a back-pass to nip in ahead of him before falling on a ball that squirmed to Jacob Ramsey to finish.
That was Watkins’ 100th goal contribution for Villa in all competitions in just over four years, as he has scored 72 and assisted 28.
Jhon Duran form takes Aston Villa goalscoring pressure off Watkins
Whilst no Villa fan will ever want Watkins to miss out through injury, they will feel they are better placed to cope should their main marksman miss out through injury.
Duran has enormous potential and he has now started to show that, but is still very raw and it is up for debate whether the Colombian can influence matches as much from the start.
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Despite his slow start to the campaign, Watkins remains a more reliable option and it would come as no surprise at all if it is the England man who starts against Wolves on Saturday before Emery uses the Carabao Cup tie against Wycombe Wanderers next week to rest Watkins.
