Ollie Watkins joined Aston Villa from Brentford for £28m in 2020
The Holte End voiced their support for Ollie Watkins, chanting the striker’s name as Morgan Rogers presented him with the ball.
Moments after Lukasz Skorupski of Bologna saved his penalty attempt, the Villa faithful again rallied behind Watkins with supportive chants.
Despite a recent Europa League victory, the England international is currently experiencing a 10-game goal drought for both club and country, a concern as Villa seeks his peak performance.
The forward’s nine-match scoreless streak in the club jersey mirrors his longest barren run, previously occurring in the 2020-21 and 2022-23 seasons.
The second-half penalty presented an ideal opportunity to break the drought, but his hesitant strike lacked conviction, allowing Skorupski to make the save.
Notably, Watkins has now missed three of his last five penalty attempts for Villa, including a crucial miss against Celtic in the Champions League the previous season.
Ultimately, thanks to Marco Bizot’s late save from Martin Vitik – it mattered little as Villa earned their first win of the season thanks to John McGinn’s early strike.
The victory allowed manager Unai Emery to express confidence that Watkins will soon end his scoring slump.
“He didn’t score, okay, it doesn’t matter, the goal is coming through the work he did today,” Emery stated.
“I am happy because he played doing his task. He worked, this is the most important.
“He pressed, he was getting in duels, he got chances, he got a penalty, he missed but the most important [thing] is how he played in 30 minutes doing his task and he did a fantastic job.
“He has to feel after each match like I am feeling now, be happy because he did his work. He has to feel the same and if he is scoring he is going to feel better.
“The most important thing is how he is working in his tasks for the team. Today he played a good match, not enough because he didn’t score but he played good. This is the first step.”
Watkins’s struggles can be traced back to the latter part of the previous season, where he managed only four goals in Villa’s final 19 matches.
While starting in 13 of those games, he was omitted from the starting lineup for their Champions League quarter-final defeat by Paris St-Germain, featuring for just 25 minutes across both legs.
This season, he has squandered all five of his significant chances, recording a mere 40 touches in the opposition’s box across nine appearances, and averaging less than one shot on target per game.
With an expected goals (xG) return of 2.2, it’s evident that his performance is falling short of expectations.
However, he remains Villa’s all-time leading Premier League scorer. His goal against Bournemouth in May marked his 75th goal, surpassing Gabby Agbonlahor’s record in 133 fewer games.
Accumulating 87 goals in 229 appearances for Villa and five in 19 caps for England, including a debut international goal against San Marino in 2021.
That came during a first season at Villa where he scored 16 goals, adapting instantly to the Premier League following a £28m move from Brentford.
His first top-flight goals came with a hat-trick in Villa’s stunning 7-2 demolition of Liverpool in October 2020.
Watkins has maintained double-digit goal tallies in each of his five Premier League seasons, including 19 goals in 2023-24, contributing to Villa’s Champions League qualification, fueling belief in his return to peak form.
McGinn told TNT Sport: “He’s a top-class striker. He’s not in the England squad for nothing. He’s shown over the years how good he is.
“If he’s not scoring, that’s fine. You’ve seen the effort he puts in for the team. We don’t need to put any pressure on him and add to any external noise. He’s been brilliant for us and has got nothing to prove to us.”