Perhaps his players did not hear Unai Emery when the Aston Villa manager said the “Premier League is the priority”, despite a looming Europa League semi-final. Or maybe they did not agree with the manager’s preference for domestic matters.
Either way, their lacklustre display here was not what Villa fans anticipated after Emery’s public attempts to inspire his troops to push for third place in the table.
Against a backdrop of warm spring sunshine, the match was a soporific affair. Fulham were not brilliant and few would argue they possess the necessary power to truly blow away opposition teams. They merely did what was required.
Ryan Sessegnon’s goal just before half-time was sufficient for a victory that puts them within two points of sixth place. Despite patchy form for much of the season, they remain firmly in the hunt for European qualification. “Let’s see if we can achieve [it],” said Marco Silva. “I’m positive we can.”
Ollie Watkins, Morgan Rogers and Tammy Abraham all tried and failed to impress the watching England head coach, Thomas Tuchel. But just one of Villa’s 10 efforts was on target. Nonetheless, Emery declined to criticise his players: “I am not happy that we lost, but not [unhappy] with the performance. The first half [Fulham] dominated more. We had two chances for Morgan and Watkins.
“The second half changed and we dominated a little bit more. We could progress with the ball and were more in the attacking third. We created chances to score with Watkins and Tammy Abraham. When we are with the chances we created today, we need to score two goals minimum.”
In spite of Emery’s assertions, it was not a performance befitting a team occupying the Premier League’s upper echelons. Without the injured Amadou Onana, the visitors were regularly dispossessed in central areas, prompting Emi Martínez to frequently berate anyone in claret and blue who would listen. Onana’s knee problem is a concern for an important end to the season, with Emery simply responding “I don’t know” when asked about its severity.
The points cushion beneath Villa is surely too great for them to mess up Champions League qualification for a second successive season, but they will need more than better finishing if they are to achieve Emery’s lofty ambitions.
Before the match, Silva had admitted his goal-shy Fulham team needed “some inspiration and creativity” in light of failing to score in five of their previous six matches.
For much of this game, they carried the threat of a platoon hurling toothpicks whenever in sight of goal. But they had Villa to thank for aiding their cause, especially during a first half when the hosts were frequently donated the ball.
Half-time loomed when the only goal came. Sasa Lukic’s initial header was parried by Martínez, but only as far as Sessegnon, who composed himself before drilling through the legs of Ezri Konsa on the goalline.
Villa did improve marginally after the break, but were fortunate not to fall further behind. A Lucas Digne mistake allowed Harry Wilson to bear down on Martínez untroubled, but the Welshman dawdled and dragged his shot wide when a goal looked more likely. Fulham were denied again just after the hour when Timothy Castagne’s bullet header was chalked off by the referee, Michael Oliver, who ruled that Sander Berge had unlawfully impeded Martínez in the process.
As Emery’s anger increased, so did the urgency of his pacing around the technical area. He changed the bulk of his midfield with a quadruple substitution after 70 minutes, completing the set with Abraham soon after. But Bernd Leno was never tested.
“We knew before the match that it’s going to be a crucial game if you want to be in a race for something important,” said Silva, of Fulham’s European dreams. “It’s a massive win. I want this club to go as far as can be. The fans should be very pleased with the position the football club is in right now. We are going to fight very hard.”
