Tyrone Mings scored the only goal of the game to help Aston Villa produce one of the narrow football results of the weekend in the Premier League. Tyrone Mings’ first-half header (21) gave Unai Emery’s team their eighth victory in their last 10 games following a strong first-half performance. The team is on a drive to qualify for Europe after a 12-year absence and showed no signs of slowing down against Fulham. This week, Fulham head coach Marco Silva took issue with claims that his team was “on the beach,” yet the Cottagers put on a terrible performance in Birmingham and were unable to cause Villa any difficulty despite the hosts letting up after the break. Villa has played one more game than managerless Spurs, who will play host to fourth-placed Manchester United on Thursday night. Villa is now one point ahead of Spurs.
The demoralizing 3-0 loss at Craven Cottage in Villa’s final match against Fulham signaled the end of Steven Gerrard’s tenure as the club’s manager. However, under Emery, Villa Park’s attitude is completely different as the Villans continue their quest to play in Europe for the first time since the 2010–11 campaign. However, Villa was given a scare after only 19 seconds as Andreas Pereira’s acrobatic attempt went just wide and into the side netting. Harrison Reed diverted Ashley Young’s goal-bound shot from the edge of the box away as Villa immediately regained control of the game and had a chance of their own.
Tosin Adarabioyo’s challenge on Ollie Watkins led to Villa’s belief that they should have been given a penalty, despite the fact that video replays indicated the Fulham defender really touched the ball first. The incident was examined by the video assistant referee, who decided to uphold Thomas Bramall’s on-field judgment. Manor Solomon replaced Willian in the starting lineup soon before kickoff, and Fulham was forced to make another substitution when Harry Wilson left the pitch in the 17th minute due to illness in favor of Bobby Decordova-Reid. After 21 minutes, Villa earned a goal after some sustained pressure from a corner when Mings flicked on John McGinn’s pass at the near post for the center-back’s first goal of the year.
Although Fulham appeared to be at a loss for words, they were able to cling on and keep the score at 1-0 at halftime. To the chagrin of their furious boss on the sidelines, Emery’s team relaxed in the second half as they attempted to slow down the game, and they almost paid the price when Mings turned Reed’s cross into his own net with eight minutes remaining to play, but they were saved by a slight offside. Despite a lackluster second-half effort, Villa held on to keep a clean sheet at home for the fifth straight game, strengthening their push for European qualifying. The team led by Emery has now accumulated 26 points from a possible 30 in their past 10 league contests.
“Yes, of course, I am extremely thrilled because after losing to both Arsenal and Leicester in our previous two games, we have now won all five of our home games. We have been attempting to maintain consistency in each game by maintaining clean sheets, maintaining control of the game, and being strong amongst our fans,” Aston Villa boss Unai Emery said. “It will still be very challenging to achieve at the conclusion of the season, but it was crucial to clarify our European position now in terms of the standings. We had two or three scoring opportunities in the first half as a result of our strategic positioning and efforts to halt their flow. They started to press a little more in the second half, and I think we were a little worn out, so we defended a little more, but we did a great job.”
“When we are ready to begin, Willian felt something in his hamstring after the warm-up, and the circumstances surrounding Harry Wilson’s [coming off] weren’t the best for us,” Fulham head coach Marco Silva said. “But these are not valid defenses. We didn’t play as well in the first half as we could have. We obviously weren’t proactive with the ball, and we allowed a horribly careless goal to give them the outcome they want. Even though we applied a little different and more intense pressure in the second half, we were unable to generate many chances. Our starting athletes weren’t having the best of nights.”
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