"When he scored, it was like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. "When you are a striker and you are not scoring, of course you think about it and it does weigh heavily. You don't want to read things,

Ollie Watkins must start to deliver and stop looking so comfortable after going five Premier League games without a goal this season. That’s according to former Watford striker Troy Deeney,

Aston Villa captain John McGinn said he hoped forward Ollie Watkins had silenced his critics after his first goal of the season inspired the hosts to a 3-1 comeback victory against Fulham in the Premier League on Sunday.

Watkins' struggles can be charted back to the second half of last season when he scored just four times in Villa's final 19 games. The 29-year-old started 13 of those but was left out of the starting line ups for their Champions League quarter-final defeat by Paris St-Germain, playing just 25 minutes across both legs.

John McGinn has suggested that a different member of the Aston Villa squad is the new penalty taker following Ollie Watkins’ miss against Bologna. Aston Villa won their first game of the season in the Europa League this week, and it was McGinn’s first-half goal that secured the 1-0 win for his team.

Ian Wright left Gary Neville stunned with his brutal assessment of Ollie Watkins after Unai Emery also delivered a surprise verdict on the Aston Villa striker. The 29 year old has endured a faltering start to the 2025/26 campaign with Villa managing just three goals from their opening seven matches across all competitions.

Ollie Watkins changed his usual confident run-up just before missing an important penalty in Aston Villa’s Europa League win over Bologna this week, Troy Deeney believes. Villa got their Europa League campaign off to a winning start thanks to John McGinn’s early strike at Villa Park on Thursday.