Dean Smith shares what he told Wesley before Aston Villa win

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Wesley opened his account for Aston Villa on Friday night as Dean Smith’s men got their first win of the season.

Dean Smith told Sky Sports’ live post-match coverage of Aston Villa’s win over Everton (broadcast on 23/8 from 19:00) that he reassured Wesley that he will not be the only forward to fail to score at Tottenham this season, while he also pointed out how Mo Salah’s record was only marginally better than the summer signing’s ahead of the clash with the Toffees.

Wesley has faced some criticism following the Villans’ opening two games of the season. Having arrived for £22 million during the summer (fee reported by Sky Sports) and having been Smith’s only striker addition during the window, it appeared that some expected more from the 22-year-old.

He did not score at Spurs or in the home defeat to Bournemouth. But his run without a goal was only a brief one as he broke the deadlock in the 2-0 victory against Everton on Friday, and produced the kind of display that would have silenced almost all of his critics.

And Smith suggested after the game that he had been reassuring the youngster about the start he had made to life with the club.

“I said yesterday he’s only one behind Mo Salah, he’s now level with Mo Salah,” he told Sky Sports. “It’s two games into a season. And I said yesterday there’s probably 14 centre-forwards who’ll go to Tottenham and not score.

“He’s a good player, I’ve been watching him for quite a long time and he was one that we wanted to get. I thought he was a handful all game today.”

There is a lot of pressure on Wesley’s shoulders with Smith not having an abundance of striker options available to him. There is a lot of creativity and quality coming from midfield and from wide areas – Anwar El Ghazi, of course, sealed the win over the Toffees with a wonderful piece of composure in stoppage-time.

But having arrived for a big fee and with Smith not having a large group of strikers, that pressure will still be on the Brazilian to make sure that the critics are given no ammunition to attack him with over the coming months. Luckily, Smith clearly believes that the forward’s doubters are going to be proved seriously wrong.