Micah Richards identifies big Aston Villa strength as Gary Lineker gives Ollie Watkins response
Aston Villa moved two points behind fourth-placed Manchester City after beating Brentford
Former Aston Villa defender Micah Richards praised Unai Emery's side for executing a number of threatening transitions in the 1-0 win over Brentford.
Ollie Watkins scored the only goal of the game in the 49th minute, firing past Mark Flekken inside the box after being picked out by Youri Tielemans on the break.
Villa thought they had doubled their lead just moments later when Watkins was again running in behind the Brentford backline, before he picked out Morgan Rogers to score.
But VAR ruled the goal out as Watkins was adjudged to be in an offside position as he sprinted behind the defensive line.
Watkins then missed a chance to put Villa 2-0 up late on after being played through by Rogers, but at a tight angle, Flekken read that the striker was going to try and chip him.
Speaking of Villa’s counter-attacking threat on Match of the Day, Richards said: "This is the goal. Villa were in a low block, but as soon as they got the ball back, they were only thinking about one thing.
"Some teams like to play through the lines, but with the quality they have, they get Tielemans starting it off and straight into Watkins.
"The goalkeeper should probably do better, but Watkins get his goal.
"It was weird because this is what Brentford normally do to other teams. Stay in a low block and then counter.
"Then, for the disallowed goal, Rogers scores, but it was fractionally offside.
'The last one, Watkins’ first thought again was to run in behind. I’m putting this to you Gary, did he do the right thing to try and dink it?"
Host Gary Lineker then replied: "In hindsight, no, but I actually think that more strikers should be dinking it at the moment because ‘keepers usually adopt that position, really low down.
"But Flekken called his bluff didn’t he on that particular occasions, so I think I would have missed that one too!"