How lethal Watkins is thriving thanks to Emery's Aston Villa transformation

Unai Emery has made a number of impressive improvements during his first 12 months at Villa Pak, and one of the biggest beneficiaries has been Ollie Watkins.

This week marks one year since Unai Emery arrived at Aston Villa, and the club celebrated the occasion in style on Sunday when they demolished West Ham United 4-1 at Villa Park.

Across the past 12 months, Emery has had nothing short of a transformational impact on his new club. When he arrived, Villa had won just three of their opening 12 Premier League matches and sat just three points above the relegation zone. A fight to avoid the drop looked inevitable.

Instead, Emery led a mammoth turnaround which saw Villa match the club's joint-most wins in a 38-match season (18) en route to securing European football for the first time since 2010/11.

In this campaign, they've picked up from where they left off and sit fifth in the Premier League table after nine rounds, just four points shy of leaders Tottenham.

Emery's positive influence on the collective Aston Villa squad is undeniable. However, the individual improvements he's engineered for key members of the team are just as impressive.

The likes of Tyrone Mings, John McGinn and Douglas Luiz have all found new levels under the former Villarreal boss, although, perhaps his greater success story so far has been the evolution of Ollie Watkins.

The forward lost his way under ex-manager Steven Gerrard and struggled for form in the early part of last season, scoring just two league goals prior to Emery's appointment. Yet under the Spaniard, he looks a different beast and he was one of Villa's star men again on Sunday as he scored and assisted in his side's emphatic win.

Those contributions took his tally to five goals and a