The 30-year-old Aston Villa forward missed out on Thomas Tuchel's latest selection but he's hoping to earn himself a recall, especially after scoring in his team's 2-0 win over West Ham over the weekend.

He told Sky Sports: "Everyone wants to play for their country but I expected that [snub].

"My form hasn't been that great, but I know what I can do. Everyone knows what I can do when I've got on an England shirt.

"I feel like I've done myself some favours. I feel like I've always performed well and I know what I can bring to the team."

Watkins insisted he's still gunning for a place in the World Cup squad, and he's confidence he has the skills to get himself in the conversation.

He added: "I'm capable of going on a long goalscoring run so I'm not ruling myself out for that [the World Cup]."

Meanwhile, his manager Unai Emery urged players to accept the reality that not everyone will get picked for every national team squad.

He said: "[Watkins is] a fighter and today he played a fantastic game. Fantastic. He deserved to score because he had a lot of attacking actions, but he was fighting with the centre-back Mavropanos and close to scoring.

"He must keep going forward. The national team is something every player is very grateful for, but we must accept that sometimes they are in and sometimes not."

He insisted the challenge Watkins faces is to focus on Villa and rebuilding his confidence, and the rest will come.

He added: "Now he must be focused with us to recover his confidence, his numbers and he will be close to being back with the national team."

Villa's win leaves them in fourth place in the Premier League, five points ahead of Liverpool and six ahead of Chelsea, while they trail third place Manchester United by just one point.