Aston Villa can boost their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League with a win over Fulham this weekend.
Unai Emery‘s side welcome the Cottagers to Villa Park, live on talkSPORT, looking to close the gap to the top five.
A defeat to Manchester City last time out meant they fell slightly off the pace in the race for Europe this season.
However, three points in the early kick-off would leave them level on points with fifth-placed Chelsea, who face Liverpool on Sunday.
Fulham aren’t going to make things easy, though, as they are also eyeing a European spot in the Premier League.
Marco Silva‘s men are eighth in the table, and that could end up being enough to qualify, so they will want to keep their spot.
Aston Villa vs Fulham: Perfect record
Emery will fancy his chances of his side coming out on top in this crunch clash as he loves playing against Fulham.
The Spaniard has won all six of his Premier League games against the Londoners, putting him among an exclusive group.
There are just four examples of a manager having more games with a 100 per cent win rate against an opponent in the top-flight.
Pep Guardiola has the best perfect record against a team, beating Watford in 10 out of 10 fixtures against them.
Guardiola has a great streak against Fulham too, winning nine from nine, while José Mourinho won seven out of seven against Portsmouth (7/7).
Ex-Man City boss Roberto Mancini has seven wins from seven games against Wigan, so Emery can equal his and Mourinho’s runs with another victory this weekend.
- Aston Villa have won six of their last seven Premier League games against Fulham (including the last four in a row), with the exception being a 3-0 away defeat in October 2022.
- Fulham have won just one of their last 20 away league games against Aston Villa (D7 L12), losing the last five in a row since a 2-1 win in April 2014.
- Aston Villa’s 2-1 defeat to Man City last time out ended a five-game winning run in the Premier League. They’ve only lost consecutive league games once in the last two seasons, doing so in November against Liverpool and Spurs.
Aston Villa vs Fulham: Team news
The hosts will be without Marcus Rashford after the Manchester United loanee sustained a hamstring injury.
It means Ollie Watkins is certain to be leading the line with Morgan Rogers continuing his ever-present streak.
Youri Tielemans is also a shoo-in in midfield, with John McGinn set for a landmark 200th appearance for the club.
As for Fulham, Antonee Robinson is in line to return after surprisingly missing the last game through injury.
It means Ryan Sessegnon may move further forward while Arsenal loanee Reiss Nelson remains sidelined, along with Rodrigo Muniz.
- Of all players to play at least 400 minutes in the Premier League this season, only Mohamed Salah (one every 66 minutes) is averaging a goal or assist more frequently than Fulham’s Ryan Sessegnon (69 – 4 goals and 2 assists in 414 minutes).
- 13 of Ollie Watkins’ 15 Premier League goals this season have either put Aston Villa ahead (7) or drawn them level (6) in the match, the highest percentage of any player to score more than 10 this term (87%).
Aston Villa vs Fulham: What has been said?
On whether this game is a must-win for Villa, Emery said: “Every match is important to win, day one, day 30, and day 35.
“Be consistent, trying to get our best, is the challenge we have, and tomorrow, how we can respect them, how we can adapt of them, how we can impose, dominate our gameplan through our positioning, through player skills and our wishes.
“Still four matches to play. Tomorrow, we will play for three points, and our moment now in the Premier League is the objective we were dreaming of two years ago, we were setting as an objective this year, but always being ambitious to be in Europe.
“How we are sharing our season with our supporters, with our fans, in everything, is really amazing how we are doing.
“Tomorrow, we have to get there smiling, focused, and together.”
- None of Fulham’s last 14 Premier League games have been drawn (W7 L7), while their last two victories have come against the league leaders (3-2 v Liverpool) and the bottom side (2-1 v Southampton).
- Aston Villa are unbeaten in their last 16 Premier League home games (W9 D7), since losing to Arsenal in their opening game at Villa Park this term. It’s their second longest run in the competition, with both coming under manager Unai Emery (also 17 between March and December 2023).
Aston Villa vs Fulham: talkSPORT coverage
This Premier League clash will take place on Saturday, May 3.
Kick-off at Villa Park is scheduled for 12:30pm.
talkSPORT will have exclusive live coverage of the game.
Reshmin Chowdhury will be your host, as commentary comes from Sam Matterface and former England striker Dean Ashton.
To tune in to talkSPORT through the website, click HERE for the live stream.
Listen via the talkSPORT app here, or on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.
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The game will also be broadcast live on TNT Sports 1 from 11am.
