Aston Villa have experienced a season of major highs and major lows so far, having beaten the likes of Bayern Munich 1-0 in the Champions League, whilst also then losing their way in the Premier League with zero victories collected in November.
Unai Emery will pray his team are out the other side of this slump in form now having collected a convincing 3-1 win over Brentford last match, especially when you look at how congested the Villans' calendar looks this month with fixtures all over the shop.
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Various Villa first-teamers looked full to the brim with confidence again versus the Bees, with Morgan Rogers standing out amongst many other key faces for Emery's side.
Top Villa performers vs Brentford
Rogers would sport a new bleach blonde hairdo for the game against Thomas Frank's men, but his football still managed to do the majority of the talking on the night.
The Villa number 27 would open the scoring to set the tone for the contest, with the recently capped England international firing home this stunning curled effort after 21 minutes on the clock that Bees goalkeeper Mark Flekken was never going to get a glove on.
Away from Emery's men clicking in attack, Villa also managed to restrict the visitors to just one big chance during the relatively straightforward affair, as the likes of Lucas Digne starred at the back with three interceptions and two tackles registered, alongside also mustering up four key passes from the left channel.
It was, however, the display of Ollie Watkins that stood out the most across the entire XI fielded, with the Villa sharpshooter more than justifying his recent nomination as one of the best attackers in 2024 at the FIFA awards with a goal and an assist in the dominant win.
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Watkins' continued brilliance for Villa
There were some groans amongst the Villa fanbase at how many big chances their star-man had been missing of late, having missed an alarming 14 in Premier League action this season, but it's undeniable how frightening the 28-year-old can be in front of goal at the top of his game.
Even with all those big chances going astray haunting the Villa number 11, he still has a respectable goal tally of seven next to his name from 14 top-flight contests, with Watkins on course for another exceptional goal return across the entire length of the 38-game marathon.
Watkins' goal numbers by season for Villa
Season
24/25
23/24
22/23
21/22
20/21
Sourced by Transfermarkt
Watkins is yet to experience a season at Villa Park where he doesn't hit double figures for goals, with last campaign even seeing him bag a stunning 27 times from 53 games. He very much lived up to his "nightmare" billing by Leicester City defender Conor Coady, who stated that the striker's ability to constantly be "on the move" makes him such a tricky talent to contain.
Coady even claimed that this ease with which he twists and turns defenders separated him from the likes of other poachers such as Haaland, who is funnily enough nominated alongside Watkins for this FIFA award, alongside other grand names such as Real Madrid ace Kylian Mbappe.
After all, even with his dips in form, the 28-year-old is only one goal shy of Mbappe's eight strikes in La Liga, whilst Haaland is only five goals in front of the Englishman himself in the Premier League, after failing to find the back of the net in his last three league outings.
Whilst there have been audible cries for Watkins to improve at points this campaign too, everyone at Villa Park will be hoping his spot-kick goal against Brentford now kickstarts a golden patch of form.
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Costing a then club-record fee of £33m to get him in through the door in 2020, the signing of Watkins has proven to be money very well spent, with the sharp-shooter now onto 77 goals overall and counting for Emery's men.
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