UNAI EMERY’S progress at Villa Park has been checked in recent weeks by three consecutive defeats.
In Aston Villa’s defence, two of those losses came at the hands of Manchester City and Arsenal, the Premier League’s two main title challengers.
Prior to that, the Villains went undefeated in January (in the league) with three wins and a draw to propel them into the comparative safety of mid-table.
Looking forward, the fixtures look relatively favourable so there may be some victories to celebrate on the horizon – and some Dream Team points too.
On that note, enter Ollie Watkins (£4.2m).
The England international has scored a goal in each of his last four outings, including strikes against the league’s top two teams.
With Danny Ings (£3.3m) having moved to West Ham, Watkins has responded superbly to being installed as the first-choice centre-forward.
The 27-year-old has scored seven goals and provided two assists in his last 12 league appearances.
In Dream Team terms, he’s amassed 57 points across the last ten Game Weeks.
While those returns may not be on the same level as Marcus Rashford (£6.4m), Harry Kane (£8m) or Erling Haaland (£9m), they are plentiful enough to warrant due consideration.
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In fact, given that Watkins is half the price of Kane and Haaland, he’s actually been a more efficient asset over that time period in terms of points against investment.
The ex-Brentford forward appears in just 0.8% of teams, making him a huge differential, and so gaffers who need to gain ground in their mini-leagues would do well to consider him as a potential replacement for Gabriel Martinelli (£3.1m), Aleksandar Mitrovic (£4.4m) or Eddie Nketiah (£3.4m).
Reverting back to the schedule, the upcoming fixtures look friendly for Villa.
Watkins will be unleashed upon Everton this coming weekend before facing Crystal Palace, West Ham and Bournemouth in March – the only one of those teams not currently in the relegation dogfight is the Eagles and they’ll be sucked in before long if their winless form continues much longer.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
