Ollie Watkins double guides Aston Villa into top four with victory at Fulham
Unai Emery lauded Ollie Watkins’s “fantastic” performance after the Aston Villa forward scored twice during their victory over Fulham at Craven Cottage.
A Watkins double took his Premier League tally to 12 and Rodrigo Muniz scored his fourth in three games as the spirited hosts failed to find a late equaliser.
Emery lauded the striker’s commitment as he continues his bid to be a part of Gareth Southgate’s Euro 2024 squad with England.
“He was fantastic,” said the Villa manager. “The best action was in the first half where he created a chance for [Youri] Tielemans.
“When he’s scoring, it’s very important for him and for us. I’m very happy with him and I believe his commitment has improved a lot. Defensively in set pieces he is also very important, I’m very proud of him.”
Villa fired an early warning shot when Watkins had a strike chalked off for offside. John McGinn slipped the striker through, but the linesman deemed him to have moved too soon as Fulham avoided an early setback.
After Fulham then had a goal of their own ruled offside from a set piece, Villa punished a series of errors and took the lead.
The usually reliable Antonee Robinson had a moment to forget when his throw-in put Willian under pressure before Watkins muscled the winger off the ball and drilled his shot past Bernd Leno.
Ollie Watkins scores the opening goal past Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno. Photograph: Jacques Feeney/Offside/Getty Images
Fulham’s sloppiness continued and Leon Bailey looked to inflict more misery on Robinson. The pacy Jamaica international turned the left-back inside out with intricate skill before his curved strike cannoned off the crossbar.
The visitors turned the screw and doubled their lead through the clinical Watkins 10 minutes after the break. Villa’s No 11 caught Issa Diop napping, finding a gap to get on the end of Tielemans’s pass before pausing and then blasting in his second goal of the afternoon.
It looked a decisive lead but on 63 minutes, Fulham scored on the break to blow the game wide open. Robinson redeemed a poor a first half with a perfect delivery from the left, finding Muniz who poked the ball past Emiliano Martínez.
Sign up to Football Daily
Free daily newsletter
Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football
Enter your email address
Sign up
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Adama Traoré came off the bench late on but Martínez bailed the visitors out with an impressive one-on-one save in added time.
Emery praised the way his side kept composure when reacting to Fulham’s goal.
Quick Guide
How do I sign up for sport breaking news alerts?
Show
“We were calm at 2-0 but we made some mistakes for their goal. We reacted very well because our mentality was to not complain, keep the gameplan and be strong in our structure. Emiliano saved it at the end and I think we deserved to win the match.”
Marco Silva admitted his side’s “soft” performance had cost them on the day. The Fulham manager was disappointed with the defensive mistakes which allowed Watkins to punish Diop in the buildup to his second goal.
“We cannot concede the goals that we did this afternoon,” Silva said. “We were punished by the second goal, we were really sloppy in the way we defended that and it was a big punch to ourselves. It’s disappointing for us. We need to be much more aggressive and not so soft.”