Aston Villa depth is temporarily hindering history for Ollie Watkins | OneFootball

A lot was made of Marco Asensio missing the penalties for Aston Villa against Southampton. On a squad that has a number of great attacking options, the discussion becomes that much more consequential when vying among players who equally would enjoy the opportunity to get a free chance to put one in the back of the net.

For Ollie Watkins, it's a bit more than that. As reported by Birmingham Live's John Townley, the striker knew that converting that PK would have meant being even with the Villa mark set by Gabriel Agbonlahor in the Premier League. Sitting at 73 Prem goals for AVFC, the striker is close to resetting the record.

On a regular squad, he may have already overtaken Agbonlahor. Working back from injury, however, and then returning to a plethora of depth in the attack has made it difficult from an individual accolade standpoint. Naturally, as a competitor, he's not someone who is exactly thrilled with starting on the bench.

His performance and finish off the Youri Tielemans pass showed and almost reminded everyone, though, of what the England international is capable of at any given moment when he is on the pitch. With the end of the current campaign in sight, he'll hope that his continued efforts will earn him a selection in the starting XI. Even if that specific aspect doesn't work out the way he'd like, it's clear that his internal passion is more than enough for him to channel his energy into goals for Villa.

This is part of the task that Unai Emery has to juggle on a match-to-match basis. Having good players means being able to turn to any number of deserving options who believe they should be the ones making the difference during critical moments of the most important matches.

Telling quote from Aston Villa striker

For Watkins, it's something that he accepts and acknowledges as being part of a deep roster. He explained in the same post-match comments:

For a high-end athlete, this is the right balance that fans would want to see. Watkins being potentially happy or not caring about not playing would be a major sign of concern. Instead, he understands something of the predicament that Emery is in while staying as sharp as he can for when the Aston Villa boss calls on him. He doesn't have the club record yet, but it will happen soon enough, if nothing else than due to sheer willpower.