Key stats
- Aston Villa have won after conceding the opening goal in the Premier League for the first time since February 22nd, 2025 against Chelsea (five games without a win)
- Raúl Jiménez scored after just 2:42, the fastest goal for Fulham in the Premier League this season
- Emiliano Buendia has scored and assisted in the same Premier League game for only the second time, previously doing so for Aston Villa against Burnley in May 2022.
Match report
Any momentum garnered from a midweek European win over Bologna looked to have vanished when Villa fell behind in the third minute.
Raúl Jiménez made a brilliant darting run to the near post, and met Saša Lukić’s corner with a superb angled glancing header.
That would prove to be the Mexican’s only telling contribution to the match though, appearing to injure himself in the process and he was replaced by Adama Traoré.
Undeterred, Fulham pressed forward again through Josh King’s superb driving run on goal, but was subsequently denied by Emiliano Martínez.
Villa spurned a golden opportunity to restore parity after Calvin Bassey was intercepted by John McGinn, but the skipper couldn’t find the target with only Bernd Leno left to beat.
King was proving to be a constant threat down the other end, and had a penalty shout turned down when his shot appeared to strike Matty Cash’s left arm before going behind.
Unai Emery’s side were largely unconvincing, but restored parity when Ollie Watkins ended his seven-game goal drought in the PL with a superb lob over Leno after latching onto Lucas Digne’s excellent long ball forward.
The turnaround was complete just four minutes into the second half courtesy of McGinn, who made amends for his first-half miss with a wonderful driven left-footed effort into the bottom corner to fire the Villans in front.
Shell-shocked, Fulham collapsed and Emery’s team added a third less than two minutes later, after Watkins teed up Emiliano Buendía to convert from close range.
But this breathless game almost took another twist, with Lukić the beneficiary of Martínez’s error, but Ezri Konsa was on hand to make a fine goalline clearance to thwart the Serbian, as Emery’s men saw out the remainder of the match with relative ease.
This was a much-needed three points for the hosts, with this sixth consecutive league win over Fulham - their best run against any club since achieving the same feat against local rivals Birmingham between October 2005 and April 2010.
Meanwhile, Marco Silva will be sick of the sight of Villa, having now lost seven of his eight PL games managing against them, as the Cottagers succumbed to a second defeat of the season.
Flashscore Man of the Match: John McGinn (Aston Villa)