Ollie Watkins: Unai Emery kept Aston Villa's players sweating before Manchester United win
Ollie Watkins has revealed how Unai Emery helped spark Villa’s blistering start in Sunday’s win over Manchester United by keeping players sweating on his team selection.
Villa raced into a 2-0 lead inside 11 minutes to set up their first home league victory over the Red Devils since 1995, in Emery’s first match as head coach.
Striker Watkins explained how players only discovered whether they were in the starting XI upon arriving at Villa Park, two-and-a-half hours before kick-off.
He said: “We found out in our team meeting, which was around 11.30. Normally, managers do it the day before, or let you know in some way.
“He kept us guessing but no matter what team he put out, it was going to be the same result at the end of the day.
“Everyone was willing to work hard and bought into the gameplan. We were all involved.”
Sunday’s 3-1 win was Villa’s second in a row at home after the 4-0 thumping of Brentford which followed Steven Gerrard’s sacking last month.
Watkins knows delivering those performances more consistently must now be the aim.
He said: “I feel like when we start well and get that first goal at Villa Park it is very hard for teams to come back.
“With the atmosphere it is tough to break us down, especially when we are all working hard collectively.
“Against the big teams, I don’t know why, we seem to put in a good performance. We need to do that every week.
“As a team we got three points on Sunday but we did not just win, we won with style and it is not one of those where we ground it out.
“We scored good goals and created chances, defended the box well. It was a really good performance.”
