Saturday night at Villa Park

Aston Villa look to return to winning ways on Saturday night, entertaining Fulham at Villa Park.

The Villans return to Premier League action on Halloween after exiting the Carabao Cup at the hands of Bournemouth in midweek, having secured consecutive league wins against Newcastle United and Manchester City.

Unai Emery’s men will hope to make it three league wins in a row in B6, while extending their unbeaten league streak to five matches.

Fulham also bowed out of the League Cup on Wednesday night, falling 1-0 at home to Crystal Palace having secured their first two wins of the Premier League season – over newly-promoted Hull City and Coventry City – in their two prior outings.

Álvaro Arbeloa’s side sit 15th in the league table after eight matches, though like Villa, are also going in search of a third successive league triumph.

Stats

Aston Villa have lost just one of their 18 home Premier League matches against Fulham (W12 D5), a 2-1 defeat in April 2014.

Fulham won their last Premier League game against Aston Villa and have registered consecutive wins against them just once before in the competition, winning both games in 2013/14.

Villa boss Unai Emery has won eight of his nine Premier League matches against Fulham (L1), a points-per-game of 2.67; of managers to take charge of 5+ games against the Cottagers, only Pep Guardiola (3, won 12/12) and Mauricio Pochettino (3, won 6/6) have a higher ratio.

The Villans are looking to win three consecutive Premier League matches for the first time since a run of eight in November and December last season.

Fulham won none of their first six Premier League games this season (D2 L4) but have won each of their last two, 1-0 wins over Hull and Coventry. The only two Premier League sides to start with six winless games then win three in a row are Newcastle in 2003/04 and Stoke in 2015/16.

Villa have only won two of their last 12 Premier League matches in August and September (D5 L5), compared to eight wins in their last 10 games across October and November (D1 L1).

Fulham are looking for three Premier League wins in a row for the first time since December 2025, while they last achieved that without conceding a goal back in April 2019.

Nicolas Jackson has scored four goals in his last four Premier League appearances for Villa, as many as he’d managed in his previous 24 games in the competition (4 in 21 for Chelsea, 0 in 3 for Villa). Only Man City duo Erling Haaland (2.92) and Rayan Cherki (2.32) have outperformed their xG more than Jackson this season (2.02).

Fulham’s average possession (58%), successful passes per game (505) and passing accuracy (86.7%) in the Premier League this season are all their best totals on record since 2003/04.

Two of the four players with the most touches in the opposition box in the Premier League this season are Fulham’s Josh King (52, 1st) and Oscar Bobb (43, 4th). King is having 7.1 per 90 minutes, with only one Fulham player on record (since 2008/09, 500+ mins played) averaging more in a season – Bobby Zamora in 2010/11 (8.6). 

The Last Meeting

Villa fell to defeat in the last meeting between they and the West London outfit in April.

With 2025/26 drawing to a close, Unai Emery’s men travelled to Craven Cottage and went down 1-0, as Ryan Sessengnon fired home two minutes before the break to seal three points.

The result didn’t stop the Villans from reaching their goals for the season, as they secured Champions League football less than a month later.

Team News 

There could be more changes for Unai Emery’s men, after the Villa boss rotated in midweek for Carabao Cup action.

Matteo Ruggeri and Aaron Wan-Bissaka remain sidelined with injury, while Amadou Onana is a long-term absentee.

Fulham will be without Ryan Sessegnon, who serves the final game of his three-match suspension, meaning Antonee Robinson should continue at left-back.

It remains to be seen whether or not David Affengruber and Emile Smith Rowe will feature, having both missed the Carabao Cup defeat to Palace.

Managers' Pre-Match Thoughts