Are Aston Villa starting to build some serious momentum?

Having failed to win any of their first six matches this season, scoring only two goals, the Villans have since won four on the spin, beating Bologna and Feyenoord in the Europa League, as well as Fulham and Burnley at Villa Park in the Premier League.

Nevertheless, chance creation remains a concern for Unai Emery, considering his team sit second-bottom of the Premier League when it comes to expected goals, above only Burnley, while only Fulham, Sunderland and Burnley have mustered fewer shots on target.

Back in January, the Claret and Blue Army addressed this by signing both Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford on loan; the Spaniard scored eight goals and registered one assist, while the England international netted four times and notched six assists.

However, both moved on to pastures new over the summer, so who could be this season’s Asensio, and why will he help unlock Villa’s primary star attacker?

Ollie Watkins' struggles for confidence

As the graphic documents, ever since he arrived from Brentford, Ollie Watkins has been a reliable goalscorer in a claret and blue shirt.

However, this season, the England international is seemingly struggling for confidence, seeing a very tame penalty saved by Bologna’s Łukasz Skorupski, before, to great relief, getting off the mark three days later against Fulham.

Nevertheless, when compared to last season, pretty much all of his statistics are down, as the table below outlines.

Goals

0.6

0.2

Shots

2.4

1.3

Shots on target

1.4

0.5

Shooting accuracy

59.7%

37.5%

Chances Created

0.9

0.7

Duels Contested

10

8.6

Touches

27.1

25.3

Touches in the box

6.3

4.5

As documented, every available metric for Watkins this season has plateaued, with the decrease in his shooting statistics the most stark drop off.

Of course, seven matches into the Premier League season, it is only a small sample size, while the fact Watkins’ touches as well as touches in the opposition penalty area have both decreased suggests that it is as much a service issue as a Watkins problem.

Last season, Watkins and the aforementioned Asensio formed an effective partnership, the former setting up the latter to score his second goal against Cardiff City in an FA Cup tie in February, but who is most likely candidate to break into the Villa team now and add that much-needed creativity?

Aston Villa's forgotten summer signing

After a summer of very little activity, restricted by Premier League Profit and Sustainability rules, Aston Villa were certainly busy on deadline day.

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Victor Lindelöf arrived as a free agent, Harvey Elliott joined from Liverpool, on loan with a £35m option to buy, so the move many missed was Jadon Sancho’s loan move, rescued from the Chelsea bomb squad at the 11th hour.

Still only 25 years old, it is now four years since the England international joined Manchester United for around £73m, and his career certainly has not panned out as hoped since.

Upon his arrival at Old Trafford, then-manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær praised his “tremendous pace, flair and creativity”, noting that he had “already achieved a great deal” for such a young player.

Well, after scoring only 12 goals in 83 appearances for the Red Devils, he has been loaned back to Borussia Dortmund and then Chelsea, spending last season at Stamford Bridge.

While he may not have been the world-beater he once was, Sancho was effective for the Blues, scoring five goals and accumulating ten assists across all competitions, including netting at Tottenham in the Premier League and then against Real Betis in the Conference League Final in Wrocław.

Given how little he has done since 2021, his most recent England cap coming against Andorra almost exactly four years ago, it is easy to forget just how exciting Sancho was when he first burst onto the scene at the Westfalenstadion.

Raj Chohan of BBC Sport praised his ‘incredibly mature decision-making’ in the final third, while Nick Wright of Sky Sports asserted that the ‘extraordinary talent’ was one of the very best young players in Europe.

During his best season in the Bundesliga, 2019/20, Sancho ranked third for goals, second for assists, first in terms of goals – xG, first for goal-creating actions, second for attempted take-ons and second when it came to carries into the final third.

Put succinctly, the Englishman was truly a phenomenon so, with Emery’s coaching, will Aston Villa get him back to that level?

Well, if they can, during that aforementioned 2019/20 Bundesliga season, Sancho created 19 big chances, thereby ranked behind only Thomas Müller and Serge Gnabry.

For comparison, in the Premier League last season, the Villa players who created the most big chances were Morgan Rogers and Youri Tielemans, both reaching 16.

Thus, getting Sancho back to his exhilarating best could be exactly what this team needs to unlock talisman Watkins. Like Asensio – and Rashford – before him, he could be the club’s new loan success story and revive his floundering career.

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