At a Glance
Aston Villa head to West London on Monday night looking to make it back-to-back victories to start the Premier League season.
The Villans, who saw off Sheffield United 1-0 at Villa Park seven days ago, can move into the top six if they collect three points at Craven Cottage.
Dean Smith’s team come into the game on the back of a 3-0 win against Bristol City in the Carabao Cup last week.
Fulham, who were promoted from the Championship last season, have lost their first two games back in the top-flight.
Scott Parker’s side have conceded seven goals in defeats to Leeds and Arsenal.
Like Villa, the Cottagers made it through to Round Four of the Carabao Cup with a 2-0 success against Sheffield Wednesday in their last outing.
Standout Stats
None of Fulham’s last 21 Premier League games have finished level, with the Cottagers winning just five of these (L16), and shipping 45 goals in the process.
Aston Villa are looking to open a Premier League campaign with back-to-back victories for just the third time, with the Villans also doing so in 1995-96 and 1999-00.
After a 10-game winless run between February-July (D2 L8), Aston Villa are now unbeaten in their last five Premier League games (W3 D2). They last had a longer run without defeat in the competition between May-October 2011 (10 games – W4 D6).
The Last Meeting
Fulham hosted Villa for an FA Cup clash back in January, running out 2-1 winners at Craven Cottage.
A much-changed away side fell behind to Anthony Knockaert’s screamer before Anwar El Ghazi equalised.
Harry Arter won the tie with a fine long-range strike in the 74th minute.
Team News
“They’re after their first points of the season. We know what it’s like coming up after play-off success, you have a short time to actually celebrate getting up and getting the team ready for the start of the season. Scott (Parker) will be looking at our game, I think, and eying it as an opportunity to get three points. It will be a difficult place to go, as always, but we feel we’re in decent form at the moment and very tough to beat.”
Dean Smith
