Aston Villa: No goals as Unai Emery rebuilds Villa's forward line in a new era

Nicolas Jackson has scored eight goals in 37 games for Senegal and played at this summer's World Cup

They open their second Champions League campaign under Unai Emery at Club Brugge on Tuesday aiming to ignite the season.

Since then, six of the starting XI from that victory have departed Villa Park, leaving them rebuilding their forward line.

Emery has revamped Villa before, but can he find their new attacking edge?

Ollie Watkins scored on his Al-Hilal debut against Al-Ahli following his £51m move to Saudi Arabia

Watkins' departure to Al-Hilal - which lurched between acrimonious and emotional - has left Villa without their best attacking outlet.

Jackson was brought in as Watkins' direct replacement and was a priority signing for Emery having worked with him at Villarreal.

He has started Villa's past two games, the 1-0 defeat by Arsenal and Saturday's draw at Hull.

In his first Premier League season the 25-year-old scored 14 goals and assisted five, compared with Watkins' 19 goals and 13 assists.

Jackson's touches in the box are also lower than Villa's departed striker - 168-231 in 2023-24 and 153-182 in 2024-25.

Yet, Jackson's time at Bayern Munich - helping them win the Bundesliga last season - gave him a 21.1% conversion rate, scoring eight goals in 1,004 minutes of game time.