Watkins on target in Villa’s five thriller spoils at Bramall Lane

Ollie Watkins scored a goal and assisted twice as Aston Villa defeated Sheffield United 5-0 at Bramall Lane on Saturday to move up to fourth in the Premier League standings.

Unai Emery’s Villa, who recorded their second win in their last six league games, are now level on 46 points with third-place Arsenal, despite having a game in hand. Manchester City is in third position, with 46 points, who has two games in hand.

Watkins told Sky Sports: “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, we had a good start and I think we killed them off in the first half. And that gave us a bit of comfort.”

Sheffield United, who have conceded the most Premier League goals at this point in the season with 59, have 10 points and are 10 points below the safety zone.

John McGinn opened the scorechart for Villa in the 12th minute, when Watkins’ shot hit the post and Scot was there for a simple tap-in. More goals followed, as Watkins, Leon Bailey, and Youri Tielemans scored respectively to give Villa a dominant 4-0 at half-time.

Álex Moreno then completed the riot two minutes into the second half with a volley to Watkins’ cross. As a result of the assist, Watkins has become the first Premier League player this season to record 11 goals and ten assists this season.

He said: “It’s not a bad night for me, to be honest, it was massive that we bounced back after a disappointing result against Newcastle mid-week (a 3-1 defeat on Tuesday).”

Vinicius Souza eventually gave the home crowd something to cheer about deep into stoppage time, but his goal was disallowed for offside following a VAR review.