The reason Thomas Tuchel gave for leaving Ollie Watkins out of his gigantic England squad this week was that he already had a ‘very clear picture’ of what the Aston Villa striker can do.
Well, just in case – and just in time – Watkins decided to provide another reminder. His strike, his first goal in the Premier League since January, helped fire Villa to a crucial victory against West Ham in their bid for Champions League qualification.
Defeats for Chelsea and Liverpool this weekend mean Unai Emery’s side have now opened up a five-point gap on their chasing rivals and left West Ham unable to take a remarkable chance to move out of the relegation zone and send Tottenham into the bottom three.
OLLIE MAKES CASE
However Tuchel tried to spin it, Watkins’ exclusion from England’s 35-man squad did not feel a great omen for his chances of making the World Cup. And not when, before this, the Villa striker had scored twice in 15 games and struggled to get anywhere near his best all season.
But on a weekend where Calvert-Lewin (two goals in 13) and Solanke (two goals in eight) showed little to justify their own call-ups, Watkins put in his best all-round performance of the campaign. He linked up beautifully with Morgan Rogers and reacted quickest when Mads Hermansen spilled Rogers’ shot in the second half.
Ollie Watkins sent a reminder to Thomas Tuchel during Aston Villa’s 2-0 win vs West Ham
Watkins could easily have had more in the first half, too, forcing a save from Hermansen, having an early tap-in taken off his toe by Hammers brick wall Konstantinos Mavropanos who later deflected another of his efforts wide. He thought he’d won a penalty when Mavropanos brought him down in the box only for the VAR to overturn Paul Tierney’s decision.
‘He is a fighter,’ said Villa boss Emery. ‘Three years ago he was not involved in the national team and he deserves to be there. He is always doing his task. When he is doing his task, his numbers come like today. He fought with the centre-backs, won duels, he was holding up the ball and playing passes. He was getting into the box, threatening and he scored. He did a fantastic job.’
NUNO’S LACK OF FAITH
Why, when you have spent the whole week working on plans to play a back three, a system against which Villa famously struggle, and a team who had lost three league games on the spin, do you rip it up at the last minute just because one of your centre-backs gets injured in the warm-up?
When Jean-Clair Todibo pulled up, Nuno Espirito Santo could simply have swapped him with another. It says a lot about his lack of faith in Max Kilman that he didn’t. Even so, he could have shifted Aaron Wan-Bissaka to centre-back and put Kyle Walker-Peters at wing-back.
Nuno did neither and instead stuck Freddie Potts in midfield, switched to a back four, and watched Villa tear them open at will in the first half. Wan-Bissaka struggled to juggle dealing with Digne and Rogers who kept drifting wide.
It felt like a rare mistake from a manager who has made few in recent weeks. They looked a shadow of the side that took a point off Manchester City. They improved when he brought Callum Wilson and Adama Traore on at the break but even then they barely had a sniff.
‘It disrupted things, the plan, the idea that we had,’ said Nuno of Todibo’s injury. ‘We decided this way because we felt this was the best option for the team. It was about controlling the midfield and the option was Freddie. We trust him. Now you look back and you can see there are many things.
‘We expected much more from ourselves. It was not good enough and today was a bit of a surprise. Some players really didn’t do what we expected.’
Were it not for Mavropanos, the new Hammers cult hero after taking a ball to the face from Erling Haaland last weekend, it could have been four, five or six as he twice also headed chances off the line.
Nuno Espirito Santo will rue the decision to change from a back five to a back four pre kick-off
JOHN JUST WHAT VILLA HAVE MISSED
John McGinn was rather bullish in midweek, ahead of Villa’s victory over Lille, when he sent a clear message to the rest of the dressing room. ‘I feel the expectation and pressure to remind players of what it takes to play for Aston Villa’.
While he’s been missing over the last two months through injury, they have sorely missed his leadership and energy. Without him, they won just two of their six league games. On Sunday afternoon, McGinn showed exactly what it takes.
He rounded it off with a stunning opener from a free-kick routine straight off the training ground as Matty Cash played it short to Jadon Sancho, who rolled it to McGinn for the Scot to curl a beauty of a first-time finish into the top corner.
He will be crucial if Villa are to secure their place in the Champions League. So, too, will Youri Tielemans who received huge applause after he made his return from a two-month injury of his own off the bench
