Emery asks patience as Villa rebuild without Watkins, Rogers — SkimNews
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- Aston Villa have scored zero goals with just one shot on target across their first three Premier League games, having taken five matches to net their first top-flight goal last season before going on to win the Europa League in Istanbul
- Ollie Watkins joined Al-Hilal for £51m after netting 91 Premier League goals — a club record — while Morgan Rogers departed for Chelsea in a £117m move; the pair combined for 46% of Villa's Premier League goals last term, with Rogers, Lucas Digne, Youri Tielemans and Watkins also supplying 19 assists between them
- Nicolas Jackson arrived for a club-record £65m as Watkins' direct replacement, having scored 30 goals in 81 Chelsea appearances and posted a 21.1% conversion rate on loan at Bayern Munich last season, though his Premier League output (14 goals, 5 assists in 2023-24) trailed Watkins' (19 goals, 13 assists)
- Ibrahim Mbaye (a £47m deadline-day arrival from PSG), Alejandro Garnacho (Chelsea loanee) and Manzambi (from Freiburg, still out with a knee injury) were also added, but 19-year-old academy product George Hemmings — praised by Emery as "clearly a Premier League player" — has so far kept Garnacho out of the side
- Only two summer signings — Jackson and goalkeeper Zion Suzuki — started Saturday's draw at Hull, with Taylor Harwood-Bellis left out of the squad entirely
- Unai Emery acknowledged the scale of the overhaul, saying: "We must be patient, and we should understand that we are rebuilding the team. Now they must get our way and demands, keeping the same mentality that we built, but with different players"
Why it matters: Villa's attacking base — already thin after Watkins and Rogers accounted for 46% of league goals last season — now leans on a record £65m signing, a deadline-day teenager, and a Chelsea loanee, forcing Emery to gamble that the same slow-burn formula that delivered Europa League glory in May can carry a Champions League return starting Tuesday in Brugge.
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