Aston Villa v Fulham: Villa look to move on from Bournemouth defeat
Villa's four-win run ended heavily at Bournemouth, Fulham's matches keep finishing tight, and the recent meetings have mostly gone one way.
By Harvey Watkins,
Aston Villa come into Saturday evening's game at Villa Park with one result standing out from their recent form. Before Wednesday they had won four in a row, scoring 12 and conceding twice. Then they lost 3-0 at Bournemouth. That defeat does not undo the run before it, but it is the most recent evidence and it was the heaviest of their last five matches by some distance.
Villa's form in context
Across those five matches Villa have won four and lost one, with 12 goals scored and five conceded. The scoring total needs a little care. Six of those goals came in a single night against Fenerbahçe. Across the other four games Villa scored six, which is solid rather than spectacular.
The wins were varied. They beat Man City 2-1 at Villa Park, won 1-0 at Newcastle and beat Viking 3-1. Kept clean sheets in two of the five. The Bournemouth result is the outlier in both directions: three of the five goals they conceded came in that one match. Whether it was a blip or the start of something is not yet clear, and one game is too few to tell.
Fulham's low-scoring run
Fulham's last five read two wins, a draw and two defeats, with four goals scored and four conceded. No Fulham match in that run produced more than three goals, and three of the five finished with a single goal in total.
They have not scored more than once in any of those games. Their two wins, at Coventry City and at home to Hull City, were both 1-0. Their most recent outing was a 1-0 home defeat to Crystal Palace, and before that they lost 2-1 at Ipswich Town and drew 1-1 with Man Utd. The pattern is of a side whose games stay close, for better and worse. Two clean sheets in five suggests they can keep things tight. Four goals in five suggests they do not often pull away.
Recent meetings
Villa have won four of the five most recent meetings, scoring nine goals to Fulham's four:
- 25 Apr 2026: Fulham 1-0 Aston Villa
- 28 Sep 2025: Aston Villa 3-1 Fulham
- 3 May 2025: Aston Villa 1-0 Fulham
- 19 Oct 2024: Fulham 1-3 Aston Villa
- 17 Feb 2024: Fulham 1-2 Aston Villa
The two most recent games at Villa Park both went Villa's way, 3-1 and 1-0. The caveat is that the latest meeting, in April, was a Fulham win. Fulham have shown they can beat Villa, and every one of the five meetings was decided by two goals or fewer.
How it might go
On balance, the evidence leans towards Villa. They have the stronger recent record, the better scoring numbers even with the Fenerbahçe game set aside, and the better history in this fixture, especially at home.
There are reasons for caution, though. Villa's last outing was their worst of the run, and Fulham's matches have a habit of staying close enough for one moment to decide them. If Fulham keep this low-scoring, as most of their recent games have been, a narrow margin either way is plausible. My view is that Villa are slightly the likelier winners, but this is not a fixture where a Fulham result would be a shock.