Before The Whistle: Fulham v Aston Villa

Written by Drew Heatley on 18th October 2024

We’re back!

Now that another irritating break in proceedings has passed, we can get back to the real meat of the meal – the Premier League.

Aston Villa visit the Cottage, a side transformed under Unai Emery, who’s five days shy of his two-year anniversary at Villa Park. We’ve had a decent time of it against Villa until he arrived, and of course it can be argued we were instrumental in that occurring; our 3-0 win in October 2022 sent Steven Gerrard packing and ushered in their new era.

Now, we hope to reverse a run of three straight defeats against the Champions League side in what will be our own boss’s 150th game in charge of the Whites.

It’s been a decent international break for most of our boys. Raul Jimenez put forward a strong argument for being trusted with free-kick duties after a sublime one against USA, while Andreas Pereira scored a bicycle kick for Brazil. We’ll be hoping both recreate some of those tekkers on Saturday.

It wasn’t a great break for everyone, though Sasa Lukic injured his shoulder for Serbia and has been on social media sporting a sling this week. Anyone peckish for a Berge?

Jokes aside, Lukic’s absence will break up what’s become quite the successful midfield trio, seemingly against all odds and perhaps logic. But Sander acquitted himself well at the Etihad before the break, so let’s hope for more of the same.

Calvin Bassey and Alex Iwobi spent a 13-hour chunk of their international break in an airport without food and water. Now recovered, they’ll be looking to send Villa packing at the weekend and continue our flying start to the campaign.

Puns aside, three points would see us leapfrog Villa on goal difference. And it’d be apt, because while Emery’s made an undeniable impact on the Villans, few current serving gaffers have transformed their clubs like Marco Silva. You Whites.