Tyrone Mings keeps Aston Villa on track for Europe with Fulham winner
Seconds after the final whistle Unai Emery marched down the touchline with the demeanour of an office worker clocking off for the day, high-fived a handful of young, ecstatic Aston Villa supporters and then disappeared down the tunnel. His work at Villa, who extended their unbeaten run to 10 games with victory against Fulham, is akin to something of a magic act.
Since Emery’s first Villa game in November no Premier League team have picked up more wins and only Arsenal, the Premier League leaders, have registered more points. A spectacular finish to a wonderfully lopsided season is in store.
Emi Martínez threw his gloves into the crowd as the Holte End crooned to the beat of Jeff Beck.
Quite where Villa’s journey goes from here with five games to play remains to be seen but their unexpected and extraordinary gallop towards achieving a top-six finish continues to gather pace. For the first time since 1998 Villa, who now occupy fifth, have won five successive league games at home. Fulham’s season, meanwhile, appears to be petering out after so much early promise. Next up? The visit of the champions Manchester City. And then a trip to Anfield.
The last time these teams met, in October, Villa succumbed to a 3-0 defeat in what proved to be Steven Gerrard’s final game in charge. Tyrone Mings, who grabbed the winner here with a clever backward header from a corner, scored an own goal that night. Villa were woeful and supporters made their anger plain after a loss that left them outside the relegation zone only on goals scored.
Six months on the mood around the club could scarcely be more different. Emery has given Villa’s players a shot in the arm and while his methods have hardly been radical he has the fanbase dreaming of European nights for the first time in 13 years. “We have to be ambitious, realistic and play under pressure,” Emery said afterwards. “I like playing under pressure. If we are playing under pressure, we have something to do. We are candidates. Our commencing matches will be key to get the European positions. Our dreams, they are here.”
Fulham gave Villa an early fright in this contest when Andreas Pereira’s acrobatic effort from Harrison Reed’s cross rattled the side netting inside 21 seconds but the hosts slowly asserted their authority. Ashley Young saw an effort from the edge of the box diverted wide by Reed and Ollie Watkins then led Tosin Adarabioyo into conceding another corner. Fulham dealt with the first set piece but not the second. Mings beat his marker, Tim Ream, to the punch and the Villa centre-back’s back header from John McGinn’s inswinging corner looped in at the far post.
Eight of Villa’s starting lineup here also began that miserable autumn night at Craven Cottage, though this team are almost unrecognisable. Fulham, by contrast, had six survivors from that October contest though Willian, who started the reverse fixture, was injured in the warmup at Villa Park and replaced by Manor Solomon. Harry Wilson, who scored in Fulham’s recent wins against Everton and Leeds, was forced off after 17 minutes and replaced by Bobby Decordova-Reid. Perhaps those changes disrupted Fulham, who struggled to test the returning Martínez.
Marco Silva, hands clasped behind his back and alone with his thoughts, pondered how his toothless Fulham side could find a way back into the game. They offered little in attack without Aleksandar Mitrovic, who still has three games of an eight-match suspension to serve. Silva had seen enough midway through the second half and made a triple substitution, with Carlos Vinícius replacing Pereira, who operated up front alongside Daniel James. The injuries to Willian and Wilson did not help but Silva was reluctant to make excuses. “If you compare with the first game against Villa, when we played at the Cottage [in October], our frontline was completely different and I believe that made a huge impact in our threat that we didn’t show tonight in our attacking line,” the Fulham manager said.
Jacob Ramsey released Watkins through on the Fulham goal but Antonee Robinson did enough to kill Villa’s attack, allowing his goalkeeper, Bernd Leno, to claim the ball.
At the other end the 37-year-old Young, who departed to a standing ovation, cut out a dangerous cross just before it could reach the lurking James at the back post. If, and it is a big if, this in-form Villa side can beat Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday, they could yet muscle in on the conversation for the Champions League places. Gerrard’s largely joyless reign feels a lifetime ago.