Ollie Watkins backing Aston Villa to take their place at top table
Ollie Watkins is confident Villa can still qualify for the Champions League despite the frustration of Saturday’s 3-3 draw with Brentford.
The club’s top scorer claimed Unai Emery’s men lacked a “big team mentality” after blowing a two-goal lead and missing the chance to put pressure on rivals Tottenham in the race for a top-four finish.
But with six league matches to go, Watkins believes all is still to play for with Villa also still chasing glory in the Europa Conference League.
The 28-year-old bagged a brace against the Bees, taking his goal tally to the season to 24 in all competitions ahead of Thursday’s quarter-final against Lille.
He said: “I felt this season I had a lot to prove to people and I still do, so I’m just trying to focus on bringing the best I can to the team. Proving people wrong, scoring goals and trying to break some records.
“But, above all, trying to help the team get into the Champions League, which will be massive for us, from where we’ve come and when I joined the club, I didn’t expect to hopefully be playing Champions League football. But I’m very confident in the manager and the squad that we can do that. I’m really looking forward to the next six games we’ve got in the league and Europa Conference League.”
Goals from Watkins and Morgan Rogers, the latter netting for the first time since his January arrival from Middlesbrough, appeared to have Villa on course for a comfortable win.
But Brentford then struck three times in nine second half minutes to turn the match on its head before Watkins got his second, with 10 minutes to go, to at least earn a share of the spoils.
“As a team, we’ve come so far from when the manager joined – 17th in the league to fighting for Champions League football. Which is unbelievable,” said Watkins. “But we’ve got here for a reason and that’s being strong, seeing games out and we didn’t do that here.
“It’s happened to us a few times over the season now, Man Utd away on Boxing Day, 2-0 up cruising, came out second half lackadaisical – all over the pitch, I’m not saying anyone specifically, me myself.
“We’ve just got to be more consistent and be that horrible team to play against when we’re ahead 2-0.”
