Unai Emery described Ollie Watkins as a "fighter" after the Aston Villa striker ended his Premier League goal drought against West Ham on Sunday. 

Villa came out on top with a 2-0 victory over Nuno Espirito Santo's side, with John McGinn opening the scoring in the 15th minute following a well-worked free-kick. 

And the win was sealed by Watkins' 68th-minute finish in what was his first top-flight strike for the Villans since a triumph away to Newcastle United on January 25. 

He has now been involved in six goals in six home Premier League appearances against West Ham (four goals, two assists), only being involved in more goals at Villa Park against Brighton (eight), Newcastle and Liverpool (both seven).

It brought an end to a difficult period for Watkins, who was also left out of Thomas Tuchel's 35-man England squad for their upcoming international friendlies later this month. 

"He is a fighter and, today, he played a fantastic game. He deserved to score," Emery told Sky Sports.

"He was fighting with the centre-back and was close to scoring, and he was pushing and helping us be in the attacking third.

"Holding up passes offensively, and then he had to get in the opponents' box to score the sort of goal he got.

"Now, he must be focused on us to recover his confidence and numbers. Getting his numbers again, he will be close to being back with the national team."

Watkins' second-half strike also helped Villa strengthen their grip on a place in the top four, having seen Liverpool, Chelsea and Brentford all drop points on Saturday. 

The Opta supercomputer has now assigned Emery's men a 75.8% chance of finishing in the Champions League places, though ending the campaign in fifth could also be enough to qualify for UEFA's flagship competition, which bumps up that probability to 92.3%. 

"[It's] massive for us with it being the last game going into the international break, and all the teams around us playing before and dropping points," Watkins added.

"We knew the job in hand, and we have taken it and maximised our opportunity to try and get into the Champions League places."

points pic.twitter.com/yScZHJTaj8

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) March 22, 2026

At the opposite end of the table, West Ham missed the chance to get themselves out of the bottom three, with Tottenham losing to fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest. 

The Hammers have picked up just 29 points from 31 Premier League matches this season. Only in 2006-07 (34 games) and 2009-10 (33 games) have they gone later into a top-flight campaign without reaching 30+ points, whilst their 16 defeats is their most at this stage of a top-flight campaign since 2019-20 (18).

Nuno's side have also now faced 20+ shots in seven different Premier League matches this season, facing 23 today, with only Burnley doing so in more games in the competition this season (nine).

The Clarets are also the only team to face more shots (520) and shots on target (175) overall than the Hammers (475 and 168).

"They created a lot of opportunities that we didn't do well enough with our shape," captain Jarrod Bowen said.

"They played well between our lines. At 1-0, you know you are in the game. We had a couple of half-chances, and then they got the second which killed the game.

"We need to focus on ourselves. Regardless of the result today, we have to focus on ourselves. We have to go to the break now and come back for a big end to the season.

"You have to hold your hands up and say they were better than us on the day, which is horrible to admit, but we weren't at the races for whatever reason.

"We feel like we are still in a good place, we can't let this put down all the work we have done to get here. It has not been a good season at all for us, but we have to keep fighting to stay in the Premier League."