Fulham vs Aston Villa

Not gonna lie...I’m still smarting from, not only the loss at Villa Park in October, but the fact that John “Asshat” Terry opened the scoring with a header off a corner. But...they’ve won 7 league matches in a row (lost to Peterborough in the FA Cup on 1/6). And they’ve leapfrogged Derby into 2nd place. Steve Bruce is at his 8th club as a manager (2 spells at Wigan), so he’ll likely stay if the win promotion.
How have they done it? Albert Adomah, Robert Snodgrass (who always seems to give us fits) and Scott Hogan have raised their games to offset the loss of Jonathan Kodjia to injury. And their possession ratio has declined during the streak. Seems they’re happier without the ball due to clinical finishing and counterattacking.
Hate to say it, but I think we’re in trouble here. Some teams just have your number in a season. Villa might have ours.

 

For the fourth time this season Fulham will take on the #2 team in the Championship (that has to be some sort of record). In all of our prior matchups against the #2 (Ipswich, Sheffield United, Cardiff) Fulham went into their home and beat them. Not only that, all them apparently suffered such shame after losing to Fulham at home that they promptly went on losing streaks that saw them drop out of the #2 spot (and in the case of Ipswich and Sheffield United, out of the playoff spots entirely).

Unfortunately this time we face the #2 team, Aston Villa, at Craven Cottage where we don't seem to have the same magic (although we are on a great 6 game home win streak). If we can defeat Villa and for the fourth time knock off the #2 team, it might be sending a message: the #2 spot is ours

 

This would help our cause quite a bit.

 

Two in form clubs and a draw would not be a shock, but I like the same 2-1 scoreline for the home side as the first time at Villa Park. I like that we are coming off a somewhat tepid performance, while Villa just beat their cross-town rival.

 

http://www.goalsarena.org/en/video/...2018-fulham-2-0-aston-villa-championship.html

 

10 minutes of highlights from the Aston Villa YouTube channel. Thanks Villa!


I complained last week that I didn't hear Fredericks name enough, but that certainly wasn't the case this week. He was impressive going down the wing setting up Sessegnon perfectly for his goal, but also cut out a number of Villa attacks back on defense. Great to see a full match from Cairney again too. Now would be the perfect time for him to return as a regular starter.

 

Nice to see our supporters getting a bit more discerning about actual quality of play versus blindly clicking on a goal scorer. Well deserved by Mr. Fredericks. Marked improvement, and if he ever starts scoring...look out.