Johnny Nicholson: Wonderful Watkins leading remarkable Villa charge

Weekend Talking Points: This is Ollie Watkins' third season in the top flight and he looks to be in the form of his career

HOT STREAK: Aston Villa's Ollie Watkins scores his sides second goal of the game during the Premier League match at Villa Park. Pic: PA

Manchester United entrench top four position 

A yellow card for Harry Maguire after three minutes against Forest meant it could have been a difficult afternoon for him in just his seventh start this season. However, along with Victor Lindelof, they both defended very well and kept a clean sheet. He is much maligned, but in Maguire’s last five starts, United have won without conceding. 

Although United dominated the second half, they were too often too slow to move the ball. Antony was especially guilty of advancing, stopping and passing backwards or sideways, seemingly lacking courage to take his man on. But he proved how good he can be when he cut in from the left and played a lovely reverse pass for Dalot to score. It was his first assist for United. Forest ended the game without a shot on target and were very short of quality in the last third.  

But is Bruno Fernandes uniquely allowed to abuse the referee without penalty? He indulges in prolonged complaints about anything that doesn’t go his way, at one point clearly repeatedly telling the official to eff off. He seems to have a persecution complex.

Handball chaos 

Do you know what is handball? No you don’t. Nobody knows anymore. The PGMOL certainly doesn't. Two games, two different outcomes. At the London Stadium, the ball is blasted against Antonio's arm from close range: penalty. At the City Ground, the ball drops on Harry Maguire’s outstretched arm but the penalty isn’t given. It was a clear and obvious error by the referee and the VAR should have told him so. How and why they didn't is as inexplicable as why Antonio’s handball was given when he simply couldn’t get out of the way. You can see why the more frothy end of social media interprets such decisions as corruption.

The Wonderful Watkins 

This is Ollie Watkins' third season in the top flight - perhaps he has finally, at the age of 27, under Unai Emery, grown into the top-notch player he always promised to be. Against Newcastle, he scored his 14th goal this season and looks to be in the form of his career. He looks physically impressive, fit and always dangerous. The sale of Danny Ings in January seems to have liberated him. He is Villa’s big man now and has very much risen to the challenge. He looks to be full of confidence and was too good for a tired-looking Newcastle. It was the club’s fifth consecutive win and although Villa have a tough run-in, playing Manchester United, Spurs, Liverpool and Brighton, they are in the conversation about the Champions League places. Europa League qualification certainly looks achievable and that will make their boss rub his hands in glee in anticipation of winning it for the fourth time.

Brighton batter the Blues

Chelsea ended their six-hour goal drought courtesy of Conor Gallagher’s deflected shot against Brighton. Needing the opposition to help them score seems symptomatic of Chelsea at the moment. The fact that Christian Pulisic handled the ball in his own area and either the referee didn't it or thought it unworthy of a penalty, must make Brighton very bitter. They lost three points last week on the back of VAR mistakes and all they got was an apology from Howard Webb. But at Stamford Bridge they battered a Chelsea team that was as lacklustre as ever. 

Brighton dominated the second 45. The stats tell the whole story, Chelsea had eight shots at goal, two on target, Brighton had 26, 10 on target. This was a 2-1 win that looked more like a five-goal victory.

Frank Lampard stood pitchside, arms folded looking at the millions of pounds of talent on the pitch and on the bench and was unable to effect any change. Brighton are a club who know what they’re doing and are damn good at it. Chelsea just don’t. They’re a shambles. Lampard may as well not have been there. Any club looking for a manager brimming with ideas and motivational capabilities would not have seen any of them. If Lampard hoped this would advertise his talents, so far, it is doing the opposite.

Everton lack fight

Everton began against Fulham playing Sean Dyche’s usual 4-4-2 and looked stodgy and ineffective. Their lack of energy meant the crowd was quiet and when they conceded Harrison Reed’s goal it wasn’t a surprise. Pretty much everything Sean Dyche wants out of his team is physical effort but the Toffees didn’t give him even that. So Dyche did something radical. He switched to 4-2-3-1. It worked within five minutes with Dwight McNeil scoring. Everton found more space to play football, the players looked more comfortable and began to be much more threatening.

But the second half was different again. Everton had only won one in 17 games where they conceded the first goal and Fulham took the lead again with a Harry Wilson goal. They had worked out how to play against Dyche’s revised system and looked half a yard quicker, much fitter, and dominated the ball. Dan James’ third silenced the Goodison faithful who gave up on their team because their team had given up. Those who remained did so in order to boo their team off. This loss should worry Dyche. They seriously lacked fight and he was brought in to give them fight. If Everton play like this for their remaining games they absolutely will be relegated. It is now four without a win, a very poor two points out of the last 12 for Dyche. Being a bit better than Frank Lampard was always a very low bar. Dyche has cleared that but it may not be enough.

Silly Spurs

The latest episode of The Spurs Comedy Show saw them take the lead only to be overhauled by Bournemouth at the death. Davidson Sanchez, a first-half sub for the home team, was removed by Christian Stellini in the second half, booed off by his own fans who blamed him for the first two goals. This season has turned into a complete mess for Tottenham, so of course after drawing level on 88 minutes, they conceded a third with 94 minutes on the clock.

With Aston Villa and Brighton both playing well-structured, dynamic, successful football, Tottenham do not deserve to end the season above them and if they defend like this again, they won’t. 

The greater worry for their fans is that this is all symptomatic of endemic decline. Lose Harry Kane and they are a mid-table team or lower. But does Daniel Levy have any idea how to arrest this? There is no obvious sign he does, indeed he is fundamentally implicated in all of their problems.

Have Arsenal handed City the title?

Questions are being asked. Are Arsenal losing faith in themselves? Do they have the staying power? Has doubt crept in? It’s the first time a team leading the Premier League has let a two-goal lead slip in two consecutive games. It had all started so well at West Ham, two up within 10 minutes and with 100% control of the game. The home side simply didn’t exert any pressure on Arsenal, giving them a lot of room to play. After 27 minutes West Ham had just 22% of possession, so they were very lucky that Gabriel stupidly brought down Paqueta to give them a successful penalty.  The confidence began to drain out of Arsenal. You could almost physically see it. They were handed a penalty when awarded a ridiculous handball decision as the ball was volleyed at Antonio’s arm at close range. Bukayo Saka’s subsequent penalty miss was surely a case of instant karma. When Jarrod Bowen equalised, it felt like a loss for Arsenal. Arteta, who had been less animated than is typical, left the pitch head bowed.