Unai Emery admits he gets Arsenal target Ollie Watkins to watch how Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang played under him at Emirates Stadium to improve the Aston Villa star.
The 27-year-old has enjoyed a sensational run of form since Emery took over at Villa Park in November. Watkins has scored nine of his 11 goals for the Premier League season thus far with the one-time Arsenal boss at the helm. He has also laid on three of his five assists yet.
Watkins has even scored eight goals over Aston Villa’s last 10 top-flight fixtures, including once at home to Arsenal. The seven-cap England international broke the deadlock just five minutes into their meeting on February 18. But the Gunners reacted to win the match 4-2.
Arteta wants Arsenal to target a transfer from Aston Villa for Watkins
Scoring against Arsenal seemingly piqued Mikel Arteta’s interest in Watkins’ transfer from Emery’s Aston Villa. Rudy Galetti claimed in March 2023 that the Gunners coach rates the forward very highly and has asked sporting director Edu to secure a transfer this summer.
Arteta wants Arsenal to target a transfer from Aston Villa for Watkins as the Spaniard feels he would complete their squad. A move to north London would also be the realisation of a dream for the striker. Watkins admitted his lifelong affection for them back in March 2020.
“That’s the dream, to play for Arsenal one day,” Watkins told Sports Gazette whilst playing for Brentford. “But, you know, it’s a long shot… I’m an Arsenal fan, so Thierry Henry was my [idol], he’s unbelievable to watch. He was the idol growing up, really.”
Emery has Watkins watching Aubameyang in action in his Gunners sides
But Emery has now admitted he has Watkins watching a different former Arsenal striker to improve at Aston Villa. The Spaniard has revealed that he has the forward watching clips of Aubameyang from his tenure at Emirates Stadium between July 2018 and November 2019.
Read Related Also: Kylie Jenner wows fans by dressing son Aire, 1, in ‘surprisingly cheap’ outfit after being ripped for ‘flaunting wealth’
Emery said, via the Express & Star: “We have an individual coach working with him and he showed him different strikers we worked with before.
“I had a very good player, for example, in [Edinson] Cavani. His movement was perfect to show other strikers. Not only him but also [Carlos] Bacca in Sevilla and Aubameyang, who had amazing movement. Ollie is very open in his mind to watch other players.
“The best is watching his improvement as a player, making movements like we are demanding of him [in] every training session and every match. Of course, we are adding different players we worked with in our career [as examples for Watkins to follow].”
Aubameyang scored 41 of his 92 goals for Arsenal under Emery from 67 of his 163 fixtures across all competitions. The former Gabon captain also made eight of his 21 assists under the Spaniard. He further scored 22 goals in their only full Premier League season together.
Now, Emery has Watkins learning from Aubameyang’s time with Arsenal as Arteta targets the Aston Villa star’s transfer. The Spaniard’s teachings helped see Aubameyang end the 2019/20 season by firing Arteta’s squad to FA Cup glory with a MOTM display in the final.
In other news, Jack Harrison Leeds claim shows Newcastle’s hopes of £35m deal are dead
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘
fbq(‘init’, ‘677672980820926’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
