Aston Villa 3-1 Fulham

Raúl Jiménez’s first Fulham goal proved to be just a consolation as we were beaten 3-1 by Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon.

After VAR overturned a penalty decision for the home side at Villa Park, Antonee Robinson put into his own net and John McGinn fired in a second as the Villans took control of proceedings.

The Whites were much improved after the break, but fell further behind courtesy of Ollie Watkins.

We responded with Raúl’s finish from a Robinson assist, and things could have turned out differently had Carlos Vinicius’ goal not been ruled out for offside.

Marco Silva made two changes to his XI, with Bobby De Cordova-Reid preferred to Harry Wilson on the right, while Raúl came in for the injured Rodrigo Muniz.

Villa almost capitalised on some fortunate bounces in the box after five minutes when Moussa Diaby swept Lucas Digne’s centre towards goal, but Bernd Leno got two strong hands to the shot to push it away.

After that, the home side were almost immediately awarded a penalty when the referee thought that Watkins had volleyed into the arm of Timothy Castagne. A VAR check, though, showed that it struck the full-back in the face, and the decision was reversed.

Raúl’s eyes must have lit up when Castagne’s smart run round the outside saw De Cordoba-Reid slip him through, but a brilliant last ditch challenge from Ezri Konsa cut out the ball across the face before it could reach the Mexican for a tap-in.

Villa had the lead in the 27th minute when Diaby’s presence in the box led to a mix-up between Leno and Robinson, with the latter unfortunately diverting Youri Tielemans’ dangerous cross into his own net.

Fulham almost responded when Andreas timed his run to get on the end of Alex Iwobi’s ball from deep, but Konsa was there again to boot the ball away as Andreas looked to pull the trigger.

Leno added to his save count when he denied Matty Cash, whose shot did not match the calibre of his setup play.

The Villa right-back then showed his defensive strength at the other end of the pitch, sliding in perfectly to deny Willian a clear run on goal.

That was a moment that proved decisive, as Villa attacked straight away and doubled their lead through McGinn, who passed a strike into the corner of the net from 20 yards.

A goal before half-time would have made Silva’s team talk a little easier, and Raúl and Willian at least drew saves from Emi Martinez in stoppage time, though both were simple claims for the Argentina number one.

The Whites started the second half positively, with Iwobi driving his side forwards and slipping in Raúl whose low strike came back off the base of the post, with Willian then placing the rebound over.

Good hold-up play from our number seven then created an opening for Iwobi, but his snapshot half volley skewed wide.

Fulham were much the better team in the second half and threatened again on the hour mark when Andreas picked out Willian at the far post. He cut inside onto his weaker left foot, but dragged his effort wide of the near upright.

Against the run of play, Villa put the game to bed. Breaking from a Fulham corner, McGinn laid off to substitute Leon Bailey whose first touch of the game was a square pass for Watkins’ simple finish.

But Fulham did not throw in the towel and got the goal our second half performance deserved. Wilson – who had come on at half-time – clipped a beautiful ball over the top for Robinson, who put it on a plate for Raúl with Martinez exposed.

Another goal would make it an interesting end to the contest, with Iwobi stinging the palms of Martinez with a daisy cutter as we entered the final 10.

Carlos Vinicius – another substitute – thought he’d nabbed said goal after rounding Martinez, but he had strayed marginally offside in running onto Iwobi’s through ball.

Villa were still a threat going forwards and should have had a fourth after Tielemens’ flick came back off the bar, with both Watkins and Bailey squandering good chances.

Fulham kept chipping away in an attempt to further reduce the deficit, but unfortunately there was no additional reward for the boys’ efforts as we left a damp Villa Park empty handed.