Unai Emery expresses pride over striker as Aston Villa salute injured midfielder
Unai Emery saluted “fantastic” Ollie Watkins after the striker fired Villa past Fulham and back into the Premier League top four.
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Watkins bagged both of Villa’s goals as they held on for a much-needed 2-1 victory at Craven Cottage, injecting fresh life into a season which appeared to be losing momentum after three defeats in their previous four matches.
Emery later dedicated the result to Boubacar Kamara, the midfielder who was this week ruled out for the rest of the season with a serious knee injury.
But he also reserved praise for Watkins. The England international took his Premier League tally for the season to 13 goals, yet Emery was delighted with his all-round performance.
He explained: “Ollie was fantastic but the best action he did was in the first half when he recovered the ball and created a chance for (Youri) Tielemans.
“When he is scoring it is very important for him. I am very happy with him. I think he has improved a lot.
“We are very happy for him and his goal but even when he is not scoring I am very proud of him.”
Kamara became the third Villa player this season to suffer an ACL injury when he went down in last weekend’s defeat to Manchester United.
Emery continued: “We dedicated the victory to Kamara. But we have to keep going and carry on. It is the moment for other players.
“Today was John McGinn playing as a central midfielder. He is one of the leaders of the team. We needed his commitment and he played a fantastic match.”
Watkins struck in the 23rd and 57th minutes to put Villa two up before a mix-up between Clement Lenglet and Emi Martinez allowed Rodrigo Muniz to pull one back.
Martinez redeemed himself with a stoppage time save from Adama Traore.
Emery said: “We reacted very well to conceding. Our idea was don’t complain, try to keep our gameplan in our mind.
“I am very happy, with our gameplan and our players. After we lost the previous match at home we knew the reaction was very important and we knew it is very difficult to win here.
“But we did a fantastic job. The players reacted very well. We struggled in some moments but more or less we had control of the game.
“They had their chances but more or less I think we deserved it.”
