At A Glance
Aston Villa start their final ten games of the Premier League season when they host Fulham at Villa Park on Sunday afternoon.
With several Villans impressing over the international break, Dean Smith will be hoping his team can shake off a four-game winless run in the top-flight.
Villa have scored just once in that run, and a 2-0 loss to Tottenham last time out leaves the club tenth in the table.
Fulham look a different side to the one that lost 3-0 to Villa earlier in the season and are on a run of eight away games without defeat.
Scott Parker’s team beat Liverpool 1-0 at Anfield to continue their fine form on their travels, but they went onto lose their next two home games against Manchester City and Leeds.
The West London side occupy the final relegation spot and are two points adrift of safety before this weekend’s fixtures.
Standout Stats
Aston Villa are looking to complete their first league double over Fulham since the 2009-10 Premier League campaign, following their 3-0 win at Craven Cottage earlier this season.
Fulham have won just one of their last 17 away league games against Aston Villa (D7 L9), though it was in their last such visit to Villa Park in the Premier League (2-1 in April 2014).
11 of Aston Villa’s 12 Premier League wins this season have seen them keep a clean sheet, with the exception being their 7-2 victory over Liverpool in October. Indeed, since that victory, the Villans have lost 11 of their 13 games in which they’ve conceded at least once, drawing the other two.
Fulham are unbeaten in their last eight Premier League away games, the longest such run in their top-flight history. They’ve also kept a clean sheet in four of their last six Premier League games on the road, as many as in their previous 50 in the competition.
Fulham have lost three of their last four Premier League games (W1), as many as they had in their previous 15 (W2 D10).
Fulham have the biggest difference between expected goals (34.1) and goals scored (23) in the Premier League this season, netting 11 fewer goals than expected based on the quality of their chances.
Aston Villa have used the fewest different players (21), made the fewest starting XI changes (31) and have the youngest average starting line-up (25y 225d) in the Premier League this season.
Bobby De Cordova-Reid is Fulham’s highest scoring player in the Premier League this season with five goals. No side has a lower scoring top scorer in the competition this term (West Brom and Wolves also 5).
The Last Meeting
Aston Villa swept Fulham aside at Craven Cottage earlier in the season, running out 3-0 winners.
Captain Jack Grealish set the visitors on their way after just four minutes before Conor Hourihane doubled the advantage shortly afterwards as he finished off a well-worked move, with the industrious John McGinn claiming both assists.
Tyrone Mings then made sure of victory when he poked home Hourihane’s 48th-minute free-kick.
Team News
Dean Smith has an almost fully fit squad to choose from. Wesley played for the Under-23s on Friday as he steps up his return to action.
Jack Grealish is available for selection while Kortney Hause is back in full training.
Tom Cairney’s knee injury is assessed “week-to-week” according to Scott Parker, who may have Bobby De Cordova-Reid available after injury.
The Boss
“It will certainly be a very different game [to the reverse fixture]. Looking at the last game they played and when we played them earlier in the season, there are only five players who started that game against us. It’s going to be very different. I believe they’re a good team and a team that’s in-form. They’ve already made up a great amount of points on the teams above them when it looked they were getting cut adrift. That shows the job that Scott Parker’s done that they’re in touching distance of three of four other clubs now.”
Dean Smith
