Aston Villa 3-1 Fulham: Villa break winless streak as VAR controversy hurts Fulham again | OneFootball

Aston Villa and Ollie Watkins both broke their barren spells as Unai Emery’s side claimed their first win of the Premier League season and the striker bagged his first goal in nine games.

Watkins’ goal ended what had been the joint worst run of his career and helped start the Villa fightback after a dismal start which included multiple VAR interventions.

As it happened

Fulham took the lead through a trademark Raúl Jiménez header when the game had hardly even begun. Villa switched off from a corner and found themselves staring at yet another defeat which would have only loudened the conversations regarding Emery’s future. However, fortunes quickly turned as Jiménez had to go off injured and Villa carved out some slight opportunities on Bernd Leno’s goal.

One of the consistent bright sparks in Fulham’s season so far has been 18-year old Josh King. The Englishman has been a regular for the Cottagers and started to dominate proceedings as the first half went on. He began breezing past Villa defenders and setting up chances including one for Harry Wilson, who had his effort saved by Emiliano Martínez. The hosts responded with chances of their own and John McGinn was unlucky to not take advantage of brilliantly winning back possession, as his eventual shot curled past the post.

King thought he had given his side a penalty to double the Fulham lead after he snuck past the Villa defence and looked to have been brought down by Martínez, but the keeper was judged to have made no contact with the teenager, who was controversially booked for simulation without VAR intervention. King’s incredible first half performance continued but it proved to be largely in vain, as Watkins finally made his mark.

The Englishman had failed to net in his previous nine Premier League appearances but found a way past Leno in the 37th minute after one long ball cut right through the Fulham defence before the striker puts away his first of the season with confidence and assurance that will help him and Villa in spades.

The confidence gained from the Watkins’ equaliser was clear to see and Villa began to dominate proceedings not long after. Their control carried over from the first half, as McGinn and Emiliano Buendía scored in quick succession to take the game away from Marco Silva’s side. After that it was a matter of seeing out the result for Aston Villa, who had faced a much criticism after their thus far poor start to the season with speculation surrounding Emery going into the game.

Such a convincing win will do wonders for Villa’s confidence as they attempt to rescue their poor start to the season and challenge in the league again. As for Watkins, their number nine firing again will give Emery’s side an even bigger boost for the remainder of the season.

Fulham travel to Bournemouth on Friday aiming to recover from such a disappointing result and rescue their otherwise fine start to the season.

The lineups

AVI: Martínez; Cash, Konsa, Mings, Digne; McGinn, Bogarde; Guessand, Elliott, Rogers; Watkins

FUL: Leno; Castagne, Anderson, Bassey, Sessegnon; Lukić, Berge; Wilson, King, Iwobi, Jiménez