Not since the 20th century have Aston Villa claimed this many points from their opening eight Premier League games. Throw in such generational Champions League wins as that over Bayern Munich this month and the mind starts to wonder just how high the ceiling might be for Unai Emery and his players.
Since losing to Arsenal at the back end of August, Emery’s team have strung together a nine-game unbeaten run in all competitions, sticking resolutely to the heels of the division’s dominant trio, while banking European memories to boot.
This latest victory came at the expense of a Fulham side whose supporters’ thoughts might have begun prematurely wandering towards potential continental ventures of their own, so impressive has their early-season form been.
But the hosts were largely architects of their own downfall here and ended three successive Premier League home wins with what would ultimately prove a comprehensive defeat. Having taken an early lead through the continually impressive Raúl Jiménez, Fulham missed a penalty and played the final half-hour a man down after Joachim Andersen was sent off. Marco Silva was vocal in his displeasure over that decision, but admitted the performance was not up to the standard he has come to expect.
A deflected Morgan Rogers strike, excellent Ollie Watkins header and Issa Diop own goal meant victory was assured before numerical parity was belatedly restored when Villa substitute Jaden Philogene was shown a second yellow card in injury time.
“I’m very proud of our mentality,” said Emery. “We are trying to keep the same performances we had last year in the Premier League, be consistent, focus on each match as strong as possible.
“In the Champions League we are very motivated and getting good results. But we needed today to play this match like we did.”
Jiménez’s opener – his 10th goal in 12 Premier League starts – came courtesy of the type of basic, route-one football rarely associated with a league that boasts of being the strongest in the world. A lumped ball from goalkeeper Bernd Leno soared high over Villa’s defensive line, where Jiménez outmuscled Pau Torres with embarrassing ease and slotted neatly into the bottom corner, kissing the inside of the post on its way.
That lead lasted just five minutes, until Rogers’ speculative long-range effort thudded into Calvin Bassey’s leg and flew into the opposite corner to its intended target, leaving a stranded Leno to stand and watch.
Both sides then wasted chances to add to their tally before half-time. First, Andreas Pereira served up the meekest of penalties, which was easily held by Emi Martínez low to his left. The referee, Darren England, had belatedly pointed to the spot after watching Jiménez’s header strike Matty Cash’s outstretched arm on the pitchside monitor.
The visitors then returned that profligacy when Rogers somehow failed to find a gaping net after Watkins’ low cross across goal.
With the game in the balance and the clock steadily ticking towards Jhon Durán time, Villa edged ahead through Watkins’ powerful header that briefly staved off the Colombian’s inevitable arrival.
The task of maintaining that lead was made considerably easier when Andersen was shown a straight red for a push on 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, duly compounded Fulham’s misery by turning a cross into his own net.
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Silva admitted his side “didn’t perform 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 felled while bearing down on the goalkeeper against West Ham.
“We are all confused. We don’t understand,” he said. “That afternoon [against West Ham], it was not a foul. All the explanation that came to us was it was a soft touch, not enough for him to go down. It was even softer today. I would like to see consistency.”
