Gary Neville blown away by Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins

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Gary Neville has heaped praise on Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins after he ‘destroyed’ the Newcastle United back line on Saturday.

Villa faced a big test of their European credentials on Saturday afternoon as Newcastle United headed to Villa Park.

Unai Emery was going up against the club he rejected back in 2021 and he pulled off an enormous win.

Jacob Ramsey fired Villa in front from a Watkins knock-down before the striker took over.

Watkins swivelled and fired Villa into a 2-0 lead before slotting home number three in a quite stunning 3-0 win for Villa.

Newcastle have been outstanding of late, so for Villa to sweep them aside so comfortably is a real stunner.

Villa are suddenly right in the mix for Champions League football and have dropped just two points in the last eight games.

Gary Neville hails Ollie Watkins

Emery deserves huge praise for the way he has completely turned Villa around following Steven Gerrard’s exit.

Villa’s back line also should be praised; in this eight-game unbeaten run, Villa have conceded just two goals.

Yet the star of the show may just be striker Watkins, who has taken his game to another level.

The 27-year-old has been in ridiculous form of late, bagging nine goals in his last 10 Premier League games.

Watkins found the net twice against Newcastle but it could have been more as Nick Pope made multiple saves from the Villa striker.

Add in an offside goal and hitting the post in the first minute and Watkins just absolutely terrorised Newcastle.

Pundit Gary Neville has now praised Watkins, admitting on the Gary Neville Podcast that Watkins has ‘really surprised’ him.

Neville knew that Watkins was a good player but he was stunned by the level he reached against Newcastle on Saturday.

Neville thinks Watkins ‘absolutely killed’ a mean Newcastle defence whilst believing that he could have scored more than two.

“Ollie Watkins, obviously I know he’s a good player, but it has really surprised me, the level he got to,” said Neville. “Newcastle are a pretty mean defence, the meanest defence in the league and I thought he absolutely killed them – I thought he destroyed them and could have had more,” he added.