Trust in Jackson crucial for Emery
- Published
Ollie Watkins' departure to Al-Hilal - which lurched between acrimonious and emotional - has left Aston Villa without their best attacking outlet.
Despite just one goal in his first 13 top-flight games last season, he ended up netting 16, leaving him on 91 Premier League goals - a club record.
Nicolas Jackson was brought in as Watkins' direct replacement and was a priority signing for Unai Emery, having worked together at Villarreal.
He has started Villa's past two games, the 1-0 defeat by Arsenal and Saturday's draw at Hull City.
Jackson scored 30 goals in 81 appearances for Chelsea, but the stats slightly favour Watkins across the period when they both played in the Premier League between 2023 and 2025.
In his first Premier League season, the 25-year-old scored 14 goals and contributed five assists, compared with Watkins' 19 goals and 13 assists.
In 2024-25, Jackson scored 10 goals to Watkins' 16 in 382 fewer minutes. He only had eight fewer shots, but his conversion rate of 13.2% was inferior to Watkins' 19.1%.
Yet Jackson's time at Bayern Munich - helping them win the Bundesliga last season - gave him a 21.1% conversion rate, scoring eight goals in 1,004 minutes of game time.
It is why Emery trusts Jackson, but the unknown is being able to gel a new core of players together, however high their potential.
Between them, Watkins and Morgan Rogers scored 46% of Villa's goals in the Premier League last season.
Rogers and Lucas Digne provided 12 assists, with Youri Tielemans adding four and Watkins three.
All four have left, so 18-year-old Ibrahim Mbaye and Chelsea loanee Garnacho will be expected to be the supply line, with Brian Madjo and Tammy Abraham supporting Jackson.
