As Aston Villa prove, there is a danger in writing promoted teams off too early. Dean Smith’s side confounded many an expectation by staying up last season and have begun the current campaign with a 100 per cent record that suggests they can cement their status as a top-flight club. They got Jack Grealish to sign a contract until 2025 and with the captain in such catalytic form, they look upwardly mobile.
And yet it is hard to avoid concluding that Fulham look likely to beat a swift retreat to the Championship. Three games have brought three defeats, with 10 goals conceded. A club that let in over 80 goals in each of their last two Premier League campaigns could complete an unwanted hat-trick. Jack Grealish and Conor Hourihane completed what were well-constructed moves by Villa, but still an indictment of Fulham. Tyrone Mings exploited their lack of set-piece marking. It amounted to a display of defensive haplessness from the hosts with Denis Odoi predictably the worst of a bad bunch.
On a day that went horribly wrong for him, Scott Parker brought in an extra centre-back in a quest for solidity. The ploy failed twice within 15 minutes, partly due to Fulham’s inability to pick up runners from deeper and wider positions. Villa’s movement, and Fulham’s flaws, brought two goals to give them their earliest 2-0 top-flight lead since 2011. McGinn recorded two assists in a game for Villa for the first time.
First Joe Bryan gave the ball away. McGinn floated a pass forward and Grealish ran past a static defence to slot his shot past Alphonse Areola. Then, after fine work from Ollie Watkins, Grealish burst into the box. He found McGinn with a low cross and, whether or not the Scot intended to tee up Hourihane, he did.
Like Grealish before him, Hourihane went from scorer to provider. His free kick was met by the unmarked Mings to slide in. So Areola’s difficult start to his Fulham career continued after conceding four goals to Leeds. In fairness, he has been afforded precious little protection and he made a fine save from McGinn.
Fulham’s defensive difficulties included a calf problem for Kenny Tete, one of their summer signings, who went off injured. Their frustration was apparent in other ways, with an accumulation of bookings, though they had struggled to halt Villa by legal methods.
They lacked a cutting edge, with Aleksandar Mitrovic missing five chances before Emi Martinez tipped Bryan’s injury-time shot on to the bar. Even when they appeared to have a lifeline, Bobby Decordova-Reid capitalising on a mistake by Martinez to seemingly score, the goal was chalked off. VAR showed Mitrovic had bundled Ezri Konsa over, rather needlessly. Once again, Fulham were their own worst enemies.
