Ollie Watkins fired the perfect response to his England snub by helping Aston Villa to a 2-0 win over West Ham.
Watkins, who has been off colour this season, saw his World Cup dreams suffer a big blow on Friday when he was left out of Thomas Tuchel’s squad for this month’s friendlies with Uruguay and Japan.
But his second-half goal, which came after John McGinn opened the scoring, fired Villa to a huge three points in the race for Champions League qualification.
After seeing rivals Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea all drop points, they produced their best performance for several weeks to end a four-game winless run in the Premier League.
West Ham have resuscitated their season in recent weeks, but their survival hopes took a blow with this loss, where they were second best throughout.
They remain in touching distance of safety, though, following Nottingham Forest’s crunch win at relegation rivals Tottenham, with all three sides – and Leeds – locked in a high-stakes battle.
