Aston Villa travel to Craven Cottage after a trip to Saint Mary’s where Aston Villa took all 3 points in an unlikely fashion. Villa scored three goals from three shots on target and won the game despite only having 27% of ball possession. Will it be a similar story against Fulham? That might be unlikely, with two key defenders suffering injuries, Vlaar and Luna. Lambert will likely revert back to a back 4. What will likely stay the same is the forward partnership of Agbonlahor and Kozak, both strikers scored against Southampton and that will leave out-of-form forward Benteke on the bench.
Fulham suffered another defeat on Wednesday but new manager Rene Meulensteen will be encouraged by Fulham’s performance against Tottenham in their 2-1 defeat. Melensteen will be searching for his first victory as Fulham boss against Aston Villa.
Team News:
Fulham are hoping that centre-back Brede Hangeland will be fit enough to return to the first team. The defender has missed the last seven fixtures with a sciatic nerve problem. Darren Bent can not face his parent club, Aston Villa.
Paul Lambert may be without key defender Ron Vlaar and Antonio Luna. Both defenders suffered injuries during the Wednesday game against Southampton.
Match Facts:
Fulham have won just one of the last eight Barclays Premier League games against Aston Villa (W1 D4 L)
Villa are unbeaten in their last five Barclays Premier League games; only Everton (7) are currently on a longer run.
There have been just four goals scored in the last four Premier League meetings between Fulham and Aston Villa.
Fulham have trailed in 11 games this season, more than any other side. They have lost 10 of these matches (W1).
In midweek Dimitar Berbatov assisted a Premier League goal for the first time in over a year (since November 10th 2012)
American ‘keeper Brad Guzan has made 45 catches, 18 more than any other goalkeeper in the Premier League this season
Predicted Lineups:
Stekelenburg
Reither-Senderos-Hughes-Risse
Dejagah-Sidwell-Parker-Kacaniklic
Kasami
Berbatov
Agbonlahor-Kozak
Tonev
Delph-Westw00d-El Ahmadi
Luna-Baker-Clark-Bacuna
Guzan
Match Prediction:
Fulham 1-1 Aston Villa
I reckon it’ll be a draw this week, Aston Villa pulled off a fantastic win against Southampton but can Lambert do it again? I don’t think we can play the same tactics against Fulham simply because their aren’t as strong as Southampton. Villa will go for it this weekend but I reckon Fulham will get something from this game, simply because theres a new manager in charge.