John McGinn (£5.3m) and Ollie Watkins (8.5m) both found the net in a fully deserved 2-0 win for Aston Villa over West Ham United.
Here are our Scout Notes from Villa Park.
WATKINS SUPERB
Villa were by far the better team on Sunday, with Watkins a constant threat up front.
The 30-year-old showed his quality after being dropped from Thomas Tuchel’s England squad last week, and was unlucky not to score more, having racked up five shots in total.
Watkins’ poor recent form has coincided with a tricky period for Villa, but with key players returning from injury, the goal scored on Sunday, combined with the extra motivation to impress Tuchel prior to the World Cup, could act as a catalyst for improvement.
“He is a fighter and today he played a fantastic game. He deserved to score. He was fighting with the centre-back and was close to scoring and he was pushing and helping us be in the attacking third. Holding up passes offensively and then he had to get in the opponents’ box to score the sort of goal he got. Now he must be focused with us to recover his confidence and numbers. Getting his numbers again he will be close to being back with the national team.” – Unai Emery on Ollie Watkins
After driving all the way to the box, Morgan Rogers’ (£7.5m) shot was saved by Mads Hermansen (£4.2m), but Watkins was first to the rebound to fire home. It was Rogers’ first attacking return since Gameweek 25.
Playing off the left, Rogers also had an effort in the six-yard box cleared off the line, with four shots and four chances created.
He also got a rare rest on 76 minutes when he was subbed off for Emiliano Buendia (£5.3m).
Before that, a superbly worked free-kick ended with McGinn curling in the opener.
“Set pieces are very important and Austin [MacPhee] is doing fantastic work with the players, and the players are responding in their commitment to follow the game plan in set pieces like they did. It’s very important to score through set pieces. It’s important for John McGinn to get numbers, and he did it.” – Unai Emery
McGinn’s strike was teed up by Jadon Sancho (£5.8m), who continued on from his excellent performance in midweek and very nearly set up another for Amadou Onana (£4.8m).
TIELEMANS BOOST
Youri Tielemans (£5.9m) returned ahead of schedule to make the bench for Villa on Sunday.
The midfielder, who previously sustained an ankle injury back in Gameweek 23, made his comeback as a second-half substitute and will now join up with the Belgium national team, who will manage his minutes accordingly.
With McGinn also back, it provides a major boost for Villa, who now hold a five-point cushion over Liverpool in fifth following their win over West Ham.
Villa are notably second on our ticker over the next five Gameweeks, with clashes against three of the current bottom five:
MAVROPANOS EXCELS
Konstantinos Mavropanos (£4.4m) was West Ham’s standout performer on Sunday.
He scored the equaliser at Manchester City in Gameweek 30 and followed it up with a really solid defensive display at Villa Park, as he banked defensive contribution (DefCon) points for the seventh time in 11 matches, the joint-most of any Fantasy defender in that period.
Averaging 5.5 points per start in Gameweeks 25-31, Villa probably would have scored four or five without him.
Further forward, it was all a bit pedestrian for West Ham, with Jarrod Bowen (£7.5m) having to do quite a lot of defensive work from his flank.
The Hammers improved after Adama Traore (£5.1m) and Callum Wilson (£5.8m) were sent on at half-time, but in the end, it was too little too late.
TODIBO INJURY, NUNO ON SUMMERVILLE
Nuno Espirito Santo lost centre-back Jean-Clair Todibo (£4.3m) to injury in the warm-up.
It resulted in a change of shape, with midfielder Freddie Potts (£4.4m) coming into the starting XI, as the Hammers reverted to a back four formation.
“It is always a problem to lose a player in the warm up. It changes things, we had to change shape and then in the first half we arrived late on the press and there were many things we did wrong.” – Nuno Espirito Santo
Crysencio Summerville (£5.6m) was again absent in Gameweek 31, too, and his return can’t come soon enough: the Hammers have not won any of the seven league matches where they have been without him this season.
“We are assessing day by day. He is improving but it is too soon to tell the exact date he will return but hopefully he returns and gives us a hand.” – Nuno Espirito Santo on Crysencio Summerville
Next up for West Ham: an FA Cup quarter-final against Leeds United, before a must-win home encounter with Wolverhampton Wanderers in Gameweek 32.
