Aston Villa are fighting for third place in the Premier League, a strong performance for Emery and the gang at Villa Park, but we saw it again against Fulham on Saturday. Villa once again lacked the edge at the top, and took a tough 1-0 loss. Newcastle have scored three goals in their last four Premier League games, all of them in defeat. Villa and Newcastle are fighting for very different positions in the Premier League table, but what the two clubs have in common is that both are linked to Alexander Sørloth.
Last summer, Newcastle were in the running to sign the Norwegian international striker, but ended up with Nick Woltemade. The German started well, but has not scored since December 20 in the Premier League. That is 16 (!) games in a row without scoring.
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Aston Villa have their Ollie Watkins, who is doing well in the Europa League, scored two important goals against Sunderland last Sunday, but has only scored 5 Premier League goals since the new year. According to the inky Fichajes, Emery has booked Sørloth for next season, where the Premier League club have signalled to Atletico they are ready with a bid of 35 million euros in the summer. It is nothing new that Sørloth is being linked to Aston Villa. With Ollie Watkins struggling to emerge as a match-winner in the Premier League, Emery wants a world-class top scorer going into the new season. In other words: Alexander Sørloth.
And what did Newcastle and Aston Villa see of Sørloth recently? The super striker was the first to sink Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals, on Saturday it was Athletic Bilbao who got to feel Atletico’s Norwegian Viking’s sharp finishing.
Athletic went into the break with a 0-1 lead, but the Atletico Madrid players woke up in the second half. Griezmann equalized after four minutes, then it was Sørloth hour. This time, the 30-year-old was involved from the start and played the whole game. Five minutes after Griezmann’s goal, Sørloth received a pass after a counterattack and good combination play, cushioned the ball perfectly and shot into the far corner to make it 2-1.
In overtime, Sørloth came alone with the goalkeeper and cashed in the ball for his second and Atletico’s 3-1 score. This turned out to be the match-winner, because also in overtime, Athletic Bilbao reduced the score to 3-2. Now Sørloth has 8 goals in La Liga and 5 goals in the Champions League since the New Year.
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This is the striker the team at Newcastle and Aston Villa understand they need. The Premier League is calling for Alexander Sørloth, this time in a completely different class than when he barely got to test himself at Crystal Palace from 2018.
