It’s imperative to take every advantage you’re given in football and Aston Villa have an issue they need to fix if they don’t want to leave points on the table.
Villa ended their long goalless run last week and secured their first win of 2025/26 on Thursday by beating Bologna in their first game in the league phase of the Europa League.
Manager Unai Emery still has some puzzles to solve and one of them reared its head at Villa Park in the team’s European opener.
After John McGinn scored what proved the only goal of the game, Villa had a chance to double the difference in the second half when substitute Ollie Watkins was fouled in the Bologna box and a penalty kick awarded.
Without Youri Tielemans on the pitch, there was little doubt about who would take the spot kick. Watkins didn’t look confident and a tame penalty was easily saved by Bologna goalkeeper Łukasz Skorupski.
Villa supporters will be well aware of their team’s persistent penalty woes. Watkins has a poor record from 12 yards and precious little competition among the Villa ranks.
“Excluding shoot-outs, Watkins has missed more penalties than he has scored in his club career, netting six and missing seven – including misses in four of the last five seasons for Villa,” writes John Townley of BirminghamLive.
Emery has had established penalty takers at his disposal at Villa but renewed concerns about them were raised when they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Brentford in a penalty shoot-out and again when Watkins’ kick was saved on Thursday.
Douglas Luiz was a largely reliable figure from the penalty spot and, from January, Emery was able to call upon the abilities of Manchester united loanee Marcus Rashford, who has now scored 21 out of 24 penalties in his career after successfully scoring twice while on loan in B6.
Watkins’ latest miss was not a costly one but was a wasted chance to end his own personal goalless run and cast fresh doubt on his suitability to be Villa’s main man from the spot. His direct understudy on Thursday, Donyell Malen, has scored five of his seven penalties but hasn’t taken one for five years.
The likelihood is Tielemans would have been in the frame to take Thursday’s penalty if he’d been on the pitch and might even be Emery’s primary choice this season despite missing twice as a Villa player, once against Lille in a Conference League penalty shoot-out and once against Crystal Palace.
Tielemans’ career record is much more positive. The Belgian international took penalties regularly for Leicester City and has converted 25 out of his 32 attempts as a senior professional.
Emery has been reluctant to play his new loanees so far this season but could yet turn to either Jadon Sancho or Harvey Elliott if Villa get a penalty while they’re on the pitch.
Elliott has a solid record from the spot at under-age levels but has yet to take a penalty as a senior player. Sancho has scored 10 penalties out of 12, including penalty shoot-outs, but he too hasn’t taken one for several years.
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