Watkins got it right as Aston Villa overcame the early blow to win at Fulham | first division

Since the 20th century, Aston Villa had not achieved so many points in their first eight games. first division games. Add to that generational Champions League victories like Bayern Munich's this month and the mind begins to wonder how high the ceiling could be for Unai Emery and his players.

Since losing to Arsenal at the end of August, Emery's side have gone on a nine-match unbeaten run in all competitions, hot on the heels of the division's dominant trio, while racking up European memories to boot.

This latest victory came at the expense of a Fulham team whose fans' thoughts might have begun to wander prematurely towards potential continental projects of their own, so impressive has been their form to start the season.

But the hosts were largely victims of their own downfall here, ending three straight Premier League home wins with what would ultimately prove a complete defeat. After taking an early lead thanks to the always impressive Raúl Jiménez, Fulham missed a penalty and played the final half hour a man down after Joachim Andersen was sent off. Marco Silva expressed his discontent with that decision, but admitted that the performance was not up to the level he expected.

A deflected goal from Morgan Rogers, a superb header from Ollie Watkins and an own goal from Issa Diop meant victory was assured before numerical parity was lately restored when Villa substitute Jaden Philogene received a second card. yellow in injury time.

“I'm very proud of our mentality,” Emery said. “We are trying to maintain the same performance we had last year in the Premier League, be consistent and concentrate on each game as hard as possible.

“In the Champions League we are very motivated and achieving good results. But today we needed to play this game like we did.”

Jiménez's first goal – his 10th goal in 12 Premier League starts – came thanks to the kind of grassroots, top-flight football rarely associated with a league that boasts of being the strongest in the world. A ball from goalkeeper Bernd Leno rose over Villa's defensive line, where Jiménez beat Pau Torres with embarrassing ease and slotted neatly into the bottom corner, kissing the inside of the post on his way.

That lead lasted just five minutes, until Rogers' speculative long-range effort hit Calvin Bassey's leg and flew into the corner opposite its intended target, leaving Leno stranded standing and watching.

Both teams then missed opportunities to increase their tally before the break. First, Andreas Pereira committed the softest of penalties, which Emi Martínez easily saved from the bottom to his left. Referee Darren England had belatedly signaled the penalty spot after seeing Jimenez's header hit Matty Cash's outstretched arm on the pitchside monitor.

The visitors then returned to that profligacy when Rogers somehow failed to find an open net after Watkins' low cross crossed the goal.

With the game on the line and the clock ticking towards Jhon Durán's time, Villa took the lead thanks to a powerful header from Watkins that briefly prevented the inevitable arrival of the Colombian.

The task of maintaining that lead was made considerably easier when Andersen received a straight red for pushing Watkins after the goalscorer had been released one-on-one with the goalkeeper. And, just minutes after coming off the bench, Andersen's replacement at centre-back, Diop, added to Fulham's misery by turning a cross into his own goal.

Silva admitted his team “didn't play at our best level” but questioned why his player was sent off a few weeks after there had been no punishment for a similar incident when Fulham's Adama Traoré was brought down while attacking the goalkeeper against West. Ham.

“We are all confused. “We don’t understand it,” he said. “That afternoon (against West Ham), it wasn't a foul. All the explanation we got was that it was a gentle touch, not enough to make him fall. It was even smoother today. “I would like to see consistency.”