3 May 2025
Aston Villa 1 Fulham 0
Every game is a cup final for Unai Emery’s side as they look to keep themselves in the mix for a top five spot in the table. They welcomed a Fulham team who themselves were hoping for a strong finish to book themselves some European football next campaign, albeit in the Europa Conference League. It was a packed-house at Villa Park for the encounter.
It was the visitors who worked the first opening of the game as Sessegnon found himself in acres of space down the right wing. Jimenez was completely unmarked in the middle but the midfielder’s cross was poor and evaded him. They tried to recycle it but the hosts did well to clear their lines and hit Fulham on the counter-attack, winning a corner in the process.
McGinn whipped in the resulting cross and Tielemans met it with a bullet-header at the near post. There was just too much pace on it for Leno to keep it out of the goal. Marco Silva will not be happy with the defending from his team at the set-piece. McGinn tried on a couple of occasions to clip balls over the defence for Watkins to run onto but the striker could not capitalise.
Aston Villa’s central midfielders were running the show by this stage. Tielemans, in particular, was looking like a real danger to the visitors. He tried an effort from some way out as it narrowly flashed past the far post. The Belgian was adamant that the keeper got a fingertip to it on the way through but the referee was having none of it.
It was a first-half of very few chances but the hosts will not have been bothered by that, after all they had their lead in the game. If Fulham hoped to get anything from this match, they had to assert themselves more as an attacking threat. Now it was over to the managers to inspire their players during the interval, to see who would come out on top in this match.
After the break, Aston Villa should have doubled their lead. Cash got down the flank and put an inch-perfect cross into the middle for a completely unmarked Watkins. Somehow, the striker completely missed it as it went through his legs. You can kind of see how he lost his spot in the first-team to Rashford with misses like this.
Moments later, Sessegnon fired in a shot from the edge of the box that nestled into the far corner of the goal. The celebrations were short-lived however as the referee ruled it out for handball. It was a tough call for the Fulham man but by the letter of the law it did strike his hand, whether he intended it to or not. So close to getting his side back on level terms.
The Cottagers were starting to come into the game more. As they looked to counter with pace again, Jimenez played it out to Iwobi on touchline. He swung a sublime ball in behind the Villa defence for Wilson but his first-time effort was poor and Martinez made a routine save. Marco Silva’s side were knocking on the door and looking the more likely to score at this point.
Unai Emery was losing his mind on the touchline, berating his players. He was certainly not happy with what he was seeing from his team out on the pitch. They managed to open up the visitors again as Watkins had a glimpse of goal. His left-footed shot was well saved by Leno with his legs to deny the hosts the second goal they craved.
Iwobi was really becoming a thorn in the side of Aston Villa. As he got to the byline once again, he stood up a cross into the middle of the goal. Wilson met it, all of seven yards out, but his effort had all the power of a Sinclair C5. Martinez was relieved to catch the ball as The Cottagers wasted yet another chance to get themselves back on level terms.
Things went from bad to worse for the visitors as Reed pulled up with an injury. Fulham had made all their substitutions and were going to have finish the game with only ten men. This left a lot of holes for Aston Villa to utilise. Malen was put through but his thunderous drive struck the underside of the crossbar and came back out into play.
Unai Emery’s side held on for the three points and kept themselves in contention of a top five spot. However, by the end of the weekend, they were trailing Chelsea in fifth spot by three points. With only three games remaining in the campaign, it seems a tough task for them to overturn that deficit. That said, The Blues do have a tricky run-in so nothing is off the table.
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