This season, Unai Emery’s team at Aston Villa is expected to accomplish some noteworthy milestones. One player in particular is getting close to breaking an 11-year record for goals scored at the club—and it’s not Ollie Watkins.
With five points more than Tottenham and eight points more than Manchester United, Unai Emery’s team, Aston Villa, is well-positioned to play in Europe next season.
This season, the Villans have surmounted many obstacles, chief among them being the injury crisis that has taxed the manager’s adaptation.
Even with three ACL injuries and a plethora of less serious absences during 2023–2024, the Midlands club is in the lead for a Champions League finish.
This season, Villa’s quality has been greatly enhanced by the play of important players like Ollie Watkins, Douglas Luiz, and Leon Bailey—three of whom are on the verge of setting a club record.
Douglas Luiz’s potential record at Aston Villa this year
By coincidence, Douglas Luiz—a combative midfielder by trade—became an excellent attacking weapon for Emery.
Given his attacking prowess this season, the Brazilian is just three goals away from surpassing the mark held by Christian Benteke, the former Villa talisman.
The midfielder needs to score 12 goals to surpass the Belgian as the highest-scoring player at Villa Park in a single Premier League season. He has already scored nine goals at home this season.
Luiz would surpass two of Dwight Yorke’s all-time top scoring home records and Juan Pablo Angel’s record of ten Premier League goals at Villa Park during the 2003–04 season if he were to break the mark.
During a season in which he scored 19 goals in 34 appearances, Benteke scored 11 goals in the league at home in 2012–2013.
How crucial Douglas Luiz is to Aston Villa
It would be a remarkable achievement for Luiz to claim the record, wholly because he is a midfielder.
Not only is the 25-year-old a midfielder but is the deepest line of the engine room, deployed to primarily support the defence, making his goalscoring ability a sublime addition to his quality.
In a season that could see Villa claim Champions League football, seeing Luiz break a goalscoring record could be just as overwhelming, proving how critical he is to Emery’s XI.
The Brazilian is the epitome of an all-rounder, with him having not only the second-highest rate of tackles per game for Villa but also the second-highest goal tally in the Premier League in the squad this campaign, via WhoScored.
It’s difficult to imagine where the Midlands club would be without Luiz, who has shown over the years just how much his game can flourish, with there no definite answer to just how high his ceiling is.
Read also: Jarrod Bowen scores first hat-trick in West Ham United win
