Ollie Watkins confident of Aston Villa strike partnership

Saturday’s 2-0 win over Norwich was just the second time both have scored in the same match and Watkins acknowledges their combined tally of 15 goals has fallen below expectations.

But he believes their chemistry as a duo is improving and hopes together they can fire Villa to a top-10 finish during the Premier League run-in.

Watkins said: “Looking back at the start of the season I think me and Ingsy would have thought we’d have a lot more goals.

“It is definitely a partnership which can work. I think we have been unfortunate. I don’t want to make any excuses but there have been inconsistent performances.

“But that is the game. In these last few matches we can hopefully push on and get a lot more goals.”

Victory over the Canaries erased any lingering fears of Villa being dragged into a relegation battle and they will head to Burnley on Saturday aiming to take another step toward the top half.

Watkins added: “It was a win we needed. We were on a bad run so it was nice to get three points. Now we need to keep pushing and aim for the top-10 finish.

“We know we haven’t been great. It was a positive taking a point against Leicester the week before. Saturday was a good day.”