Fulham 1-3 Aston Villa

Marco Silva’s 150^th game in charge of Fulham ended in a 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa in an incident-packed Cottage clash.

A breathless opening ten minutes saw Raúl Jiménez give the Whites the lead, but Morgan Rogers responded for the Villans before Andreas Pereira missed a penalty.

Ollie Watkins turned the game around in the second-half and, with Joachim Andersen sent off for the hosts, Issa Diop turned into his own net to make it three.

The home side came out of the traps quickly, and when Antonee Robinson linked up nicely with Alex Iwobi, his inviting cross was just missed by Andreas in the middle. Kenny Tete kept the attack alive, but his shot from the edge of the box was blocked.

We found the opener inside five minutes as red-hot Raúl raced onto a long ball forward from Bernd Leno, before out-muscling Pau Torres and firing home with a low first-time strike.

But Villa levelled with their first foray forward, as Rogers’ speculative shot from outside of the box deflected off Calvin Bassey and past a wrong-footed Leno.

Fulham were close to immediately retaking the lead, but Raúl couldn’t direct his header on target from Andreas’ dangerous corner delivery.

At the other end, Leno had to be alert when Watkins was put through, and our ‘keeper made himself big to block the shot.

Fulham were awarded a penalty following a VAR check when Matty Cash handled inside the area, but goalkeeper Emi Martinez got down to keep out Andreas’ spot-kick.

The game continued to be open for both sides, and Rogers and Watkins both spurned good opportunities, firing wide when the ball was pulled back to them from the left.

And there was one final opportunity of the half when Robinson’s looping cross from the left was headed back across goal by Adama, but Raúl couldn’t keep his header under the bar.

Leno was called into action again after the break, tipping away at full stretch when Andersen nipped in ahead of Watkins, and keeping out a Ramsey strike after the ball broke loose from a free-kick.

The visitors’ pressure paid off, with Watkins glancing a header into the back of the net to give his side the lead on the hour mark.

Things went from bad to worse shortly after, as Andersen brought down Watkins and was shown a straight red by referee Darren England.

His replacement, Diop, had no better luck, as Lucas Digne’s drilled cross cannoned off the substitute for Villa’s third.

As Unai Emery’s team became content to keep possession, there were relatively few chances in the closing stages.

Villa winger Jaden Philogene was shown a second yellow late on after a foul on substitute Reiss Nelson, but it made little difference on an unfortunate afternoon in SW6.