Fulham at Aston Villa

Fulham travel to Villa Park on Sunday to take on Aston Villa. Kick off is at 9am EDT on, sigh, USA Network.

Villa has been terrible. They've scored one goal in the league so far this season and that came from a defender last week against Sunderland. A 10-man Sunderland that Villa still couldn't find a way to defeat. Watkins and Rogers have both been on poor and they really stunk on Thursday when Aston Villa played Bologna in the Europa League. Watkins showed absolutely no confidence when we took a PK that he drove straight at the keeper and Rogers seemed to forget what a ball was used for in the game. Still they got their first win of the season and I think the poor performances from Watkins and Rogers could actually be bad for Fulham because a bad showing in a mid-week match gives Emery plenty of cover to make changes. That would likely include starting Harvey Elliott, one of Fulham's favorite villains (villain like a "bad guy", not villain as in "from Aston Villa"). Aston Villa will probably get better if Watkins and Rogers are pulled and that makes this matchup one that could be the start of a Villa turnaround. Of course, Fulham has a habit of helping goal scorers who've gone cold turn things around, so I won't be surprised if Watkins ends up with a hat trick too.

Fulham will probably bring out the same lineup that we saw against Brentford since they won, the alternate 11 didn't shine against Cambridge United, and Silva is reluctant to make changes generally. I hope that the new signings are given some significant time to come on as subs, since I don't think the Cambridge match was the best venue for them.

Emery has had Fulham's number with a perfect record of seven wins between his time at Arsenal and Aston Villa. However I think this time it could be different! But not in an exciting way. Given how both teams can struggle to score I feel like the most likely outcome is a turgid 0-0 result.

 

One interesting side note to keep an eye on for this one is that Aston Villa will be prohibited from using the multiball system as a result of violations last season. I’m not sure how this will play out (or how it did for their first two home matches) but it could be interesting. Especially for Fulham who won’t have already played two matches this way.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/aston-villa-premier-league-statement-35736583

I’d like to see Jedi regain his spot in the first eleven, but otherwise expect more of the same from the Brentford match. I’d also like to see more shots… on target and not from 35+ yards out.