Aston Villa came back from behind in dramatic style to pick up all three points against Crystal Palace in an entertaining 3-1 victory at Villa Park but it was a win which highlighted a superb alternative to deal with Ollie Watkins’ dry spell.
Crystal Palace took the lead early in the second half, against the run of play, when Odsonne Edouard finished off some excellent wing play from Jean-Philippe Mateta after Villa dominated much of the proceedings.
It didn’t take until the 87th minute for Jhon Duran to score a sensational equalizer before Douglas Luiz, and Leon Bailey scored in stoppage time to round off the victory and return the Villans back to winning ways after their 3-0 defeat to Liverpool before the international break.
Despite the impressive comeback and victory, it was another game where Emery’s star man produced another blank despite having a hateful of chances.
Watkins passed up on a big opportunity to put his side ahead before half-time, but he missed a one-on-one with Sam Johnstone, before he then hit the post in the second half as Villa went in search of an equaliser.
After failing to find the net against Palace, Watkins has now scored just one goal in his last 12 Premier League appearances [SofaScore] and is yet to open his account for the league campaign.
As per SofaScore, Watkins underperformed his very low xG of 0.49, registered one key pass, missed two clear-cut chances, failed to successfully complete any of his dribbles and won just one of his duels in another tepid and lacklustre performance.
With the Villans set to face some crucial run of games in the coming weeks, Emery may well be tempted to surprisingly axe his star man with a burgeoning Villa Park wonder ready to grab the headlines while Watkins’ finds his form again.
Jhon Duran yet again made quite the impact from the bench for Aston Villa in their 3-1 comeback win against Crystal Palace and his sensational strike in the 87th minute certainly showed Watkins how it’s done.
That was Duran’s third goal for the club since joining from Chicago Fire in January, each of those strikes coming this season in six – mainly substitute – appearances in all competitions.
With a Sofascore rating of 7.6, only Douglas Luiz (8.2) ranked higher than Duran among Aston Villa players on Saturday.
The 19-year-old has plenty of competition ahead of him, but he has surely now done enough to warrant a starting place for Thursday’s [21 September] trip to Legia Warszawa.
Indeed, Duran’s 2.86 goals per 90 minutes in the Premier League this season is bettered by only three other players in the division [FBref] – and two of those have only featured once.
Those figures are skewed by the fact Duran has only played just an hour of football, but it shows that the Medellin native is taking his opportunities when they arrive which means were Emery to axe Watkins on Thursday and beyond, he will have no concerns over Duran’s ability to find the net.
His goal against Palace was out of the top draw, one reminiscent of Christian Benteke’s rampant days in an Aston Villa shirt. The touch to take it down on his chest, before swivelling and hitting a sublime strike into the top corner out of the reach of Johnstone in the Crystal Palace goal.
Duran has also won his only two aerial duels this season, while he also has a 100 per cent success rate when it comes to successful dribbles (1/1), as per FBref but those figures will certainly look more well-rounded when he ultimately breaks into the team on a regular basis.
And given Watkins’ current worrying form right now, the Aston Villa fans may not have to wait too long.