Ollie Watkins fires Arsenal transfer message as Unai Emery makes costly Aston Villa mistake

Ollie Watkins has expressed his frustration at a recent spell on the bench for Aston Villa. The 29-year-old striker was heavily linked with a move to Arsenal at the start of the year, .

football.london understands that towards the end of the January transfer window. Unsurprisingly, Aston Villa rejected the offer, demanding £60m for the England international's signature.

It's understood that and, had the two Premier League clubs agreed on a fee, he would've made the switch. Unfortunately for Mikel Arteta, who was eager to bolster his frontline, the north Londoners fell short.

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Meanwhile, Aston Villa wrapped up a deal for Marcus Rashford, . Watkins has continued to feature for Unai Emery's side, but he's not started nearly as many games.

For instance, for the each of the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal legs against Paris Saint-Germain, and he's started just two of Aston Villa's last four Premier League games.

Watkins hasn't been afraid to express his frustration in the public eye, . Earlier this week, the former Brentford forward said: "For me, I’m not happy to sit on the bench. It’s disappointing every game that I’m on the bench, but it’s the manager’s decision at the end of the day."

When quizzed on his decision to bench Watkins for Rashford, Emery said: "It was my selection, tactically. We are adding more competition, .

"Of course, Watkins is very, very important for us. He’s scoring goals for us, and last Saturday, his impact was fantastic. On Tuesday, it was difficult for him to read the match and show his power.

"But he worked, he is ready. I am so, so happy with him, and I want to win tomorrow. As players, they can be sad at not playing or angry at not playing - I prefer angry."

On Saturday afternoon, Watkins finally returned to the starting lineup, firing Aston Villa to a 4-1 win over Newcastle United. The Arsenal target wasted no time in making an impression, finding the net in the opening minute.

Speaking to after the game, Watkins doubled down on his previous comments. He said: "Obviously, being out of the team, no one's happy to sit on the bench when you're a professional player and you always want to play in the starting lineup.

"Obviously, I found myself out of the team for a few games, so today I was raring to go and I wasn't going to let that opportunity slip being in the starting lineup again."

On the game, Watkins added: "We knew Newcastle were going to go man for man. For me, personally, I like it when teams do that because obviously you're one-versus-one so you're going to have a lot of duels.

"And then it's focusing on beating the defender you're up against and then going from there. I think I got the better of [Fabian] Schar today and gave him a tough time."

Watkins hasn't been afraid to make his feelings known, putting Arsenal on red alert ahead of the summer transfer window...