Ollie Watkins strengthened his cause to play for England by scoring a three trick during Aston Villa’s 6-1 thrashing of Brighton in the Premier League on Saturday. Brighton was defeated by Aston Villa.
At Villa Park, Watkins scored twice in the first half before an own goal by Pervis Estupinan made it 3-0 in favour of the home team.
Although Ansu Fati scored a goal for Brighton in the second half, Watkins finished the game with a hat trick to demonstrate his eligibility for international competition.
Watkins has seven England caps to his name, but he was not selected for the team that travelled to the United States in September.
Watkins placed himself in position to be picked to the England team for the October matches against Australia and Italy as England boss Gareth Southgate watched from the stands. The matches are scheduled to take place in October.
In the last minutes of play, Jacob Ramsey and Douglas Luiz scored the fifth and sixth goals, respectively, to finish off Villa’s most impressive victory of the season.
This season, the players for Villa have voiced their displeasure with the club’s new jerseys, claiming that they are uncomfortable due of the excessive amount of perspiration they retain.
However, Unai Emery’s squad scarcely needed to break a sweat in order to defeat a sluggish Brighton side that was blasted away at Villa Park by a scorching run of three goals in just 12 minutes during the first half of the match.
Villa has started out well in the league, winning five of their first seven matches to move up to third place in the standings ahead of this weekend’s remaining games.
Emery has done a great job at Aston Villa since taking over for the fired Steven Gerrard. The club’s total of 58 points for the current season is second best in the league, behind only Manchester City’s 71 points.
Villa has a perfect record at home, winning their last ten matches in a row, and they have legitimate goals of finishing in the top four.
Following a strong start to the league season in which they won five of their first six matches, fourth-placed Brighton has had a week they would rather forget after suffering defeats in both the League Cup at struggling Chelsea and against Villa.
The name “Lethal Watkins”
After just 14 minutes of play, Villa got on the board when John McGinn sent Matty Cash down the right wing with a well placed ball.
Watkins scored his fifth goal of the season as he took advantage of Cash’s low cross that was perfectly weighted for him to tuck the ball in from inside the six-yard box.
The 27-year-old didn’t have to wait very long to score his second goal, as he crafted a wonderful individual effort that was scored in the 21st minute of play.
Watkins received the ball from Moussa Diaby and ran onto it. As he entered the penalty area, he deftly cut back through two Brighton players and then fired a low effort that beat Jason Steele.
Watkins was the driving force behind Villa’s offensive explosion, and the striker was directly engaged in the team’s third goal, which they scored 26 minutes into the match.
This time, it was Watkins who was the one who started the play by finding Diaby well inside the penalty area. Steele made a stop on the forward’s initial attempt, but his scuffed follow-up shot got a fortunate deflection off Estupinan as it found its way into the back of the goal.
In the fifty minute, Fati scored a goal to cut the team’s deficit in half. The striker on loan from Barcelona finished Joao Pedro’s cross from close range, but the goal was only counted after a long review by the video assistant referee for offside.
Watkins’ deflected attempt from the outside of the box looped over Steele in the 65th minute, putting an end to any dreams of an unexpected comeback by Brighton.
Ramsey executed a beautiful finish from 18 yards out into the far corner in the 85th minute, when Brighton was already in ruins.
Luiz was able to provide a finishing touch to Villa’s impressive performance in the dying seconds of the game when he side-footed the ball into the goal from the outside of the penalty area.