Fulham 1-3 Aston Villa: Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins and an Issa Diop own-goal steer Unai Emery’s side to victory – as both sides finish with 10-men as Joachim Andersen and Jaden Philogene see red

With the game level after the break, the cameras panned to Jhon Duran warming up on the sidelines. When you need a goal, who better to call upon than the Colombian who went into this game averaging a goal every 46 minutes in the Premier League this season?

But there is a reason why despite all the noise, Ollie Watkins remains Unai Emery’s main man up top.

On the hour mark, Watkins’ bullet header gave Aston Villa the lead and from there, Emery’s men never looked back.

It was a 150th senior goal on his 400th senior appearance for Watkins.

For the boy from Torquay who grew up in the Exeter City academy and has made the journey from non-league prodigy to national hero, this enthralling battle with Duran will only elevate him to higher standards. 

Five minutes later, his movement was the reason why Fulham went down to 10 men when Joachim Andersen was sent off for denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity before an own goal from Issa Diop doubled Villa’s advantage and sealed the three points.

Three points that looked unlikely when Fulham missed a first-half penalty with the score at 1-1 when Andreas Pereira’s spotkick was saved by Emiliano Martinez.

After two consecutive draws, victory took Villa back into the top four and confirmed their best start to a Premier League campaign since 1998-99.

Sunday marks two years since Steven Gerrard was sacked by Villa and under Emery, Villa continue to go from strength to strength.

‘I’m very proud of our mentality, we did a fantastic job,’ said Emery, who hailed Martinez as ‘the best goalkeeper in the world.’ ‘Before the penalty, I was sat down on the bench dreaming he would save it and he did,’ the Villa boss added.

Meanwhile Marco Silva was left to lament his sides’ performance and the refereeing decisions, saying Andersen’s red card was ‘confusing.’

‘It was not a good performance from us,’ he admitted. ‘With the red card, I would like to ask for a clear idea of what consistency the referees have in these moments. When Adama (Traore) was 1v1 against West Ham, it wasn’t a foul. We were told it was soft. This was even softer and we got a red card. For me, the referees are trying not to go for soft touches – they explained to us but three weeks later, you see a completely different situation and not consistent to what we’ve seen week in or week out in the Premier League,’ he added.

Silva’s men got off to a dream start when, five minutes in, Bernd Leno hoofed one up and Pau Torres made a mess of it, with Raul Jimenez getting in behind and firing a left-footed strike past Martinez.

Villa were fortunate to draw level four minutes later when Morgan Rogers’ strike from outside the box took a wicked deflection off Calvin Bassey and wrong-footed Leno.

Just before the half-hour mark came the crucial moment. Darren England didn’t award a penalty to Fulham for a handball by Matty Cash but VAR deemed that Cash’s arm was in an unnatural position and the referee overturned his decision.

Up stepped Pereira and it was a shocking attempt that was comfortably held by Martinez who dived low to his left, much to the delight of the Villa fans behind his goal.

Villa started stronger after the break and from Youri Tielemans’s corner, Watkins used Emile Smith-Rowe’s contact to leap up and head in his fifth goal in five games. Andersen was then sent off for dragging down Watkins before Lucas Digne’s cross was bundled in by Diop.

A needless late red card for Jaden Philogene put a slight dampener on Villa’s afternoon on the Thames but this was a deserved victory for Emery and Co, who welcome Bologna in the Champions League on Tuesday night.