Unai Emery hails Aston Villa super subs

Ollie Watkins, Donyell Malen and John McGinn all came off the bench and scored as Villa earned a fourth consecutive league win.

Villa were experiencing a frustrating afternoon against the already-relegated Saints, with Aaron Ramsdale saving Marco Asensio’s penalty.

But Watkins finally broke the deadlock in the 73rd minute when he lifted a superb volleyed finish over the keeper.

Malen then scored for the third straight Premier League game, before McGinn netted on the rebound to make it 3-0 after Asensio had another penalty saved in stoppage time.

Asked about the performance of Watkins, who found himself on the bench for the fourth out of five league games, Emery said: “Fantastic job. Also Malen and McGinn. 

“This is my argument. When I can have problems getting consistent performances in 90 minutes, it was when we didn’t have enough players to play.

"Now, we are very demanding and we must have players on the bench ready to play and help to win. McGinn, Watkins and Malen, also Kamara and Garcia, were very important.”

Villa are now just three points behind third-placed Nottingham Forest, who were beaten 1-0 at home by Everton.

Emery’s men face Newcastle, Manchester City and Fulham in their next three league games.

The boss said: “The effort we are doing and the matches we have played to get points, it is important how we are progressing. 

“We can’t stop now. We must win and focus on football more than normally. We have to enjoy the process we are in.

“The players have to understand the competitive way I am creating here. Now is the moment. We are being more consistent than we were.”

Emery continued: “Every team has good players. The difference is when you have players available or not. 

“Every team has injured players. We have January and February without some players and we struggled. We weren’t consistent in 90 minutes.

“Usually we want to be in the top positions, but we have to accept it is 38 matches and to learn from what happened before. We are in the moment to focus on everything we are doing.”