Unai Emery: Watching world's best aiding Ollie Watkins' Aston Villa scoring streak

Watkins has been a player transformed since Emery’s November arrival as head coach, scoring 10 goals in 17 appearances under the Spaniard, having netted just twice in his first 14 outings of the season.

Emery explained how his staff, led by performance coach Antonio Rodriguez Saravia, have shown the 27-year-old clips of strikers they have worked with before, most notably Uruguay ace Edinson Cavani, who the Spaniard managed at Paris St Germain.

Watkins, who has previously admitted to studying Kylian Mbappe and Mo Salah in a bid to improve his finishing, has also been shown film of Sevilla’s Europa League winner Carlos Bacca and former Arsenal frontman Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang when working on his movement.

Emery said: “We have an individual coach working with him and he showed him different strikers we worked with before.

“I had a very good player, for example, in Cavani. His movement was perfect to show other strikers.

“Not only him but also Bacca in Sevilla and Aubameyang (at Arsenal) who had amazing movement. Ollie is very open in his mind to watch other players.

“The best is watching his improvement as a player, making movements like we are demanding of him, every training session and every match. Of course, we are adding different players we worked with in our career (to show him).”

Emery has previously described Watkins as setting an example with his work ethic.

He added: “Ollie is very committed to listen and learn and very humble to work hard every day, watching his movement and another striker’s movement and thinking football.”

“My instruction to every player is we have to use our moment as a professional to try and improve 100 per cent in our work, in our mind every day thinking football.

“Then we can rest with family, with friends. The players have to be very professional in their lives. Not only here (at the training ground) but at home too. Watkins is a good example, for his commitment.”

Emery has, meanwhile, challenged to Bertrand Traore to kick on after the winger’s brilliant winner at Leicester.

The Burkina Faso international, recalled by Emery from a loan spell in Turkey on the final day of the January transfer window, scored his first Premier League goal in nearly two years to earn his team a 2-1 win.

Emery said: “I was aware he played well in the first season (at Villa). Last year, for different circumstances, he decided to go on loan to Turkey.

“I spoke to him and he was very committed to helping us. I told him we needed one player with his qualities in the squad.

“The players like him a lot, he’s appreciated in the dressing room and everyone was happy for him on Tuesday. Now he’s here, it’s not enough for us. I want the best of him for the nine remaining games with us.”

Midfielder Boubacar Kamara, absent from the squad at Leicester, is facing up to another fortnight on the sidelines with a recurrence of the ankle injury sustained in early March.

Matty Cash (calf) and Philippe Coutinho (hamstring) are looking at similar timescales for their respective returns from injury. After today’s match with Nottingham Forest, Villa host Newcastle next Saturday.