Having dispatched reigning Premier League champions Liverpool 7-2 in their previous game, Aston Villa make the trip to fellow high-fliers Leicester City on Sunday night.
Dean Smith’s side are riding the crest of a wave, having won their opening three matches in the top-flight – a far cry from the relegation dogfight that they were in at the end of last season.
And whilst they would have headed into Sunday’s game against the Foxes with the utmost confidence, Villa have been handed another boost ahead of the game.
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According to reports, Leicester defender Caglar Soyuncu is a major doubt for the clash at the King Power Stadium, with the Turkey international having missed out on his country’s Nations League game against Serbia due to injury.
It’s also added that Soyuncu’s regular centre-back partner Jonny Evans is also questionable, after reporting pain in his thigh – he was hooked at half-time in Northern Ireland’s contest against Norway.
If either miss out, or even both, that will only serve to whet Ollie Watkins’ appetite even more. The summer signing from Brentford has enjoyed a barn-storming start to his career at Villa Park, bagging five in his opening six games across all competitions, including a perfect hat-trick against title holders Liverpool.
Speaking late last month, Smith said: ” It’s a tough league to go and score goals in and we all know that. Normally the top strikers come from the top four teams and have done over recent years, but in Ollie we believe there’s a player who can score an awful lot of goals.
“We’ve seen it with the players at Aston Villa, with Christian Benteke, Peter Withe and Alan McInally, people like that. There are a lot of Aston Villa fans who are waiting for that player who’s going to score the goals.”
Watkins will be on cloud nine at the moment, and the Foxes’ injury crisis at the back could see him run amok once again. Another hat-trick isn’t outside the realms of possibility on Sunday.
And in other news, Aston Villa missed a potential upgrade on Douglas Luiz in this £18m-rated talent.
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