Why Ollie Watkins 'got a bit frustrated' as striker closes in on Aston Villa history
Youri Tielemans has praised Ollie Watkins' mentality and dedication to improve after the striker hit double digits for the season on Saturday night.
His 10th goal of the campaign completed the comeback against Arsenal after Unai Emery's side were 2-0 down before the hour mark at the Emirates Stadium. It's the fifth successive top-flight season in which Watkins has scored 10 or more goals and he is now only six away from breaking the club's all-time Premier League scoring record, currently held by Gabriel Agbonlahor.
Watkins went eight matches without scoring in open play after bagging his sixth of the campaign against Crystal Palace in November, before netting the winner at Goodison Park on Wednesday and then the all-important leveller against Arsenal.
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“He knows that chances are going to come and he’s always there to bury them and that’s what we want from him," Tielemans said. "Credit to him and he works really hard, he’s always demanding and asking for more. He wants to score, be important for the team and this season he’s done that again.
"I think he wasn’t 100 per cent fit at the start of the season and maybe that’s why he got a bit frustrated because he always wants to do well and help the team. But once he got scoring, the goals are going to come with him because he will get those chances and he’s going to put them in."
Villa moved two points off fourth place after drawing with Arsenal and Tielemans hailed the team's display of character to come back from two goals behind. It was the first time in which Villa avoided defeat in a Premier League away game in which they trailed by two or more goals for the first time since November 2013 - which was a 2-2 draw at West Brom - ending a run of 52 straight defeats in that situation.
"It was really good, the way we came back into the game," Tielemans said. "We’ve got a great fight is us and I think we showed that especially towards the end to come back into the game which was very important. To get a point here is always difficult. We did really well in the end. He [Emery] said to not give up, to keep going until the end and we know that one goal puts us back in it.
"Everyone thought it was done when Arsenal scored the second goal, they played really good to be fair to them. We just tried to keep our heads to counter sometimes when we could and to try and nick a goal which we did.
"It shows our character, mentality and the way we don’t give up as a team and we always try to push ourselves and obviously this was a very tough afternoon because they played good football and we had to dig deep and we had to defend really well. We had to counter as well and that’s how we got the goals.
The midfielder added: "Anything can happen this season, from one week to another it can change so much but we’re doing really well at the moment to have that win at Everton on Wednesday.
"Now to have a result here is not very easy. But we just have to have that consistency away from home and keep doing what we do at home. It’s been a long time and the competitiveness this season is very high. I think we can see week-in and week-out there are surprising results away and at home so we just need to stay consistent and get as many good results as we can.
"We try to be more consistent away from home and we know we have to work at that. We know at home we are having good results but away from home we know we have to work on that. But this week we’ve done good."
Asked if Villa are aiming to get back in the Champions League via their league finish, Tielemans replied: "Yeah, for sure. That’s the ambition. That’s why we are trying to push and be consistent and hopefully get more positive results."
