Fixtures
- Fulham Vs. Aston Villa – Sat, Oct 19th 2024, 15:00
Aston Villa’s Premier League campaign resumes in west London on Saturday with a trip to Fulham.
Villa have a positive recent record against the Cottagers, winning five of the last six meetings between the clubs including both top flight tilts last term.
Unai Emery’s team are on an eight-game unbeaten run dating back to August, a sequence that includes three wins and two draws in the Premier League.
Fulham sit three points behind Villa heading into the game after making a strong start of their own.
Marco Silva’s side lost their opening match of the campaign before stringing together a five-game unbeaten streak in the league.
However, the Londoners suffered a 3-2 loss to Manchester City ahead of the international break.
Stats
Aston Villa’s Jhon Durán has four goals in just 184 minutes of action in the Premier League this season, averaging a goal every 46 minutes so far. This is the best minutes-per-goal ratio of anyone to feature for at least 90 minutes this term.
No player has played more passes (including crosses) into the opposition box than Fulham’s Andreas Pereira in the Premier League this season (64), with the Brazilian also creating the most chances from set plays (16).
Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins has scored five goals against Fulham in his career in English league football, including three in the Premier League last term. Only against Brighton (6) has he netted more.
No team has scored more goals from crosses than Aston Villa in the Premier League this season (5). No player has scored more such goals than Ollie Watkins (2), while Lucas Digne and Youri Tielemans have two such assists each – only Bukayo Saka (4) has more.
Fulham are the only side yet to score from a set-piece situation (excluding penalties) in the Premier League this season, while only Arsenal (4) have scored more such goals so far than Aston Villa (3).
Aston Villa are unbeaten in their last five league games (W3 D2), though their 0-0 draw with Manchester United last time out was their first clean sheet in 12 Premier League matches. They last recorded back-to-back league shutouts in December last season.
Fulham are unbeaten in their three Premier League home games so far this season (W2 D1). They last had a longer run without defeat at Craven Cottage from the start of a campaign in 2011-12 (4).
Aston Villa have lost just one of their last 12 Premier League games in London (W8 D3), a 5-0 loss to Crystal Palace on the final day of 2023-24. Their eight wins in this time (all under Unai Emery) are as many as they’d managed in their previous 48 top-flight games in the capital.
Aston Villa have won five of their last six Premier League games against Fulham (L1), including the last three in a row. It’s more wins than they’d managed in their previous 19 against the Cottagers in the top-flight (W4 D10 L5), while they’ve never won four in a row against them in their league history.
Fulham lost this exact fixture 2-1 in February last season – they’ve never lost consecutive home league games against Aston Villa before.
The Last Meeting
Unai Emery’s 50th Premier League match in charge of the club ended in a 2-1 win at Craven Cottage in February.
Ollie Watkins’ brace secured the victory, with the striker finding the net with fine finishes in either half.
Rodrigo Muniz reduced the arrears for the Cottagers with a near-post finish, but it was Villa who emerged triumphant with all three points in west London.
Watkins and Álex Moreno also saw efforts ruled out for offside by VAR, as did Tim Ream at the other end, while Leon Bailey struck the crossbar from distance.
Team News
Unai Emery has an almost fully fit squad to choose from after the international break, with Robin Olsen the only player ruled out.
The manager also said Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara are available to be selected in the squad following their long-term injuries.
Fulham will be without Sasa Lukic after he picked up an injury on international duty.
Joachim Andersen withdrew from the Denmark squad and will be assessed, while Jorge Cuenca and Carlos Vinicius remain doubts.
Managers’ Pre-Match Thoughts
“I respect a lot Marco Silva as a coach. He’s an incredible coach here in England, taking a lot of experiences in different teams and being successful. With Fulham, the work he’s doing is fantastic. They are very competitive, they have a very good organisation tactically, defensively, offensively and individually as well they are a very difficult team. You can see the demands the coach has imposed on them. They are three points behind us, but when I arrived here two years ago they were in front of Aston Villa and they were a rival for us to get Europe.”
– Unai Emery
“It’s a very good side we’re going to play against. They’re coming off the back of a brilliant season where they were at a high level, and we need to praise them for that and understood how good they’ve been playing. Even the start of the Champions League has been impossible to be any better for them because it’s been perfect in terms of results. They will be fully motivated to get a good result but they know what they’re going to face as well. We have been playing well, we’re strong at home and we have been away from home as well. It’s going to be a very good game in my opinion and both teams will try to win the game.”
– Marco Silva
