After last week’s humbling 2-0 loss against fellow Midlands club Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa would be pleased to have the opportunity to bounce back at Villa Park on Sunday. Having won 12 home games on the bounce, travelling Fulham would find it difficult to get a result – but they need points on the board as they sat in 16th place heading into this game.
AST: Martinez; Digne, Torres, Konsa, Cash; Tielemans, Luiz, Kamara, McGinn; Diaby, Watkins
FUL: Leno; Robinson, Ream, Bassey, Castagne; Palhinha, Iwobi; Willian, Pereira, Decordova-Reid; Jimenez
With the crowd in full voice from the get-go, the home side put the visitors under some serious pressure. They should have capitalised on this and taken an early lead through Moussa Diaby, though his well-placed effort was expertly saved by Bernd Leno.
The hosts would soon take the lead though, although not from one of their own players. Antonee Robinson was the unlucky man as he deflected a low Youri Tielemans cross into the bottom corner in the 27th minute.
Fifteen minutes later, John McGinn doubled the lead. The Scottish midfielder found space on the edge of the box after shifting past Joao Palhinha and fired a sumptuous effort into the bottom right hand corner, nearly taking the net off with it – a captain’s contribution indeed.
Embed from Getty ImagesVilla put the game to bed after a mesmerising counter attack that was finished off by Ollie Watkins once again, with substitute Leon Bailey exchanging passes with McGinn before firing in a low cross for Watkins to stroke home.
Raul Jimenez would get his goal eventually after Villa’s high line was exposed – and not for the first time this season. Harry Wilson curled a lovely pass over the top of the defence to Robinson, who unselfishly laid the ball on a platter for the Mexican striker.
Unai Emery will be delighted with the three points and a record 13 Premier League home wins heading into the international break. His counterpart, Marco Silva, will have to reflect on the ease in which Villa created their goals – and with Fulham sat in 16th place, he will be eager to get three points next time out against Wolves.
