Unai Emery admits he needs to make a decision on his penalty taker against Paris St Germain on Tuesday after Marco Asensio’s nightmare double miss.
Villa limbered up for the Champions League quarter-final second leg with a 3-0 win at Southampton.
But Spanish midfielder Asensio saw two spot-kicks saved by Aaron Ramsdale to leave his boss with a late call to make.
“We have our penalty shooters,” said Emery. “The first one is Marcus Rashford, the second is Marco Asensio, the third is Youri Tielemans, John McGinn or Ollie Watkins.
“Marco decided to take the second because the first one he failed, it was revenge for him. He missed it. We have to accept it and of course now we are going to decide for the next match.”
It was Watkins who kick-started Villa’s climb back into the top five after replacing Rashford in the 66th minute.
Watkins won the first penalty, and four minutes after Asensio’s miss he scored a superb goal, lifting Youri Tielemans’ pass over Ramsdale and in off the underside of the crossbar.
Fellow substitutes Donyell Malen and John McGinn put the match beyond Southampton – the latter with the rebound after Asensio’s second miss – as Villa made it four straight Premier League wins to move into the top five.
“We are trying to set clear our demands and our way to achieve it. I think they did a fantastic job from minute one to minute 90,” added Emery.
“We played serious, we followed the game plan, respected them a lot. I am very happy. This is our challenge, our momentum and we have to be so focused in everything we are doing and to get everything we demand.”
While Villa look towards overturning a 3-1 deficit against PSG and reaching a Champions League semi-final, Saints have the slightly more modest ambition of trying not to become officially the worst team in Premier League history.
Having already become the first club to be relegated with as many as seven games of the season remaining, they now have six left to try to eke out the two points required to overhaul Derby’s record low tally of 11.
Interim boss Simon Rusk, who has the unenviable task of guiding Saints through the dying embers of this dreadful season, said: “We showed a lot of grit for 60 or 70 minutes against a top team.
“I think we can be pleased with a lot of that. We’re really disappointed with the goals but we have to respect a Champions League quarter-final team and respect where we’re at and respond to that.
“I think everyone could see the lads have given their all. All things considered I think 3-0 was quite harsh.”
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