Unai Emery is a 'tactical genius' - Watkins

Aston Villa matchwinner Ollie Watkins has labelled his manager Unai Emery a "tactical genius" after their comeback victory over Chelsea on Saturday night.

Watkins came off the bench to score a brace and help what was a timid-looking Villa side in the first-half, completely turn the game around.

And speaking after the win, Watkins heaped praise upon his manager for the his tactical tweaks mid-game.

"Yeah amazing win, obviously for me personally to come on and score two goals is a great feeling, but to keep up this run, and to come away here at Chelsea, a tough place and win, amazing is the word to sum it up really," he told Sky Sports.

"He [Emery] changed it, because Chelsea were going man for man but they had the extra centre-back when we were going long.

"So when I came on second-half he brought Sancho on the wing and Morgan [Rogers] and I think it gave us a little more space and then put Youri [Tielemans] in the No. 10 so we had an extra body up there

"Tactical genius I would say."

With the win, Villa went just three points league leaders Arsenal and travel to the Emirates next, but Watkins remained coy on his side's title hopes.

"Yeah, I feel like teams are worried about us, you know they're thinking 'Oh, we've got Villa next,'" he said.

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"Even if we may not play the prettiest football at times, they know we're going to eventually cause them problems when we do string a few passes together, we're taking each game as it comes and just focusing on ourselves.

"Obviously there's been alot of talk about us, people asking the question about us winning the title, but you know that's a long way away and we're just focusing on the next game."

And despite his heroics, Watkins admitted that he hasn't been playing at his best so far this season.

"As a striker you want to be scoring every game, I feel like I've had some good performances but maybe not at the standard that I've set for myself," he added.

"I haven't been where I've wanted to be but I can use this a marker and push on from here for the rest of the season."