Ollie Watkins grabbed a goal and two assists as Aston Villa thrashed lowly Sheffield United 5-0 at Bramall Lane on Saturday to climb to fourth in the Premier League standings.
Unai Emery’s Villa, who won for only the second time in six league games, are level on 46 points with third-placed Arsenal, although the north Londoners have a game in hand. Third-placed Manchester City also have 46 points, but have two games in hand.
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“We came into the game with the mindset that we had to win second balls and fight for everything and then let our football to do the talking,” Watkins told Sky Sports. “We had a good start and I think we killed them off in the first half. And that gave us a bit of comfort.”
Bottom side Sheffield — whose 59 goals conceded are the most by a Premier League team at this point of the season — have 10 points, and are 10 points below the safety zone.
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John McGinn opened the floodgates for Villa in the 12th minute when Watkins’ shot came off the post and the Scot was there for a simple tap-in. There was more misery to come with Watkins, Leon Bailey and Youri Tielemans scoring to give Villa a commanding 4-0 lead at half-time.
“I’m happy because before the match we were very focused to react,” Emery told the BBC. “We scored goals, created chances and stopped them. Winning away is difficult.
“We have to try to focus each match. We’re really happy. Our aggression was fantastic.”
Hundreds of United fans had already left by the time Álex Moreno took advantage of some careless defending less than two minutes after the restart when Watkins lifted a cross into the box and the unmarked Spaniard smashed in a volley.
Watkins is the first Premier League player to achieve double digits in goals, with 11, and assists (10) this season.
“It’s not a bad night for me, to be honest,” said Watkins, who took a pinpoint pass from Douglas Luiz for his goal in the 16th minute. “It was massive that we bounced back after a disappointing result against Newcastle mid-week (a 3-1 defeat on Tuesday).”
Vinicius Souza finally gave the home crowd something to cheer about deep in stoppage time, but his goal was disallowed for offside after a VAR check.
While Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez spent much of the game wandering around his box, he was pressed into action when he made a terrific double save late in the game.
United manager Chris Wilder said he and his team “have to apologise to our supporters”.
“For our 30,000 Sheffield United supporters, it wasn’t good enough,” Wilder said.
“Myself and my players have got to accept that responsibility. We have got well and truly took to the cleaners, 4-0 down after 30 minutes there was never a chance of us getting back into the game,” he added.
“It is not a nice feeling, there is no hiding place, for a manager — I am stood in that technical area for about 95 minutes but it felt like about three weeks — and for the players who are out there.”