Aston Villa picked up a second win of the season with a convincing victory over a bipolar Fulham team.

Goals from Jack Grealish, Conor Hourihane and Tyrone Mings were enough to give Dean Smith’s side a 3-0 victory, with Bobby Reid having a consolation goal ruled out by VAR. Fulham had a succession of chances go wide, especially from Aleksandar Mitrovic and played decent attacking football but it wasn’t enough to stop Villa.

Story of the match

It was a blitzing start for the Villans, with captain Jack Grealish putting Dean Smith’s side ahead after just four minutes. Following a bright spell of attacking pressure from the hosts, Joe Bryan shanked a clearance which just found McGinn. The Scotsman managed to fire off a beautiful looped pass to find Grealish in space who kept his cool to beat Alphonse Areola at his near post.

Villa’s dream start got better just ten minutes later as Grealish capitalised on yet more poor Fulham defending. The winger again found himself in acres of space in the area to flash a low ball into McGinn, who’s deft layup gave Conor Hourihane an open goal. Ollie Watkins had a chance to make it three but was just too slow to tap in Trezeguet’s cross. Fulham did manage to stabilise later in the first half but were unable to score before the interval.

In truth, the scoreline flattered Villa somewhat. While they looked like scoring every time they went forward and could have easily got more than just two at half time, they were helped massively from poor Fulham defending. For Grealish’s opener, Dennis Odoi completely misjudged the run of the Villa star to give him so much space in the area. It was much the same story for the second with two defenders being dragged out of position by Ollie Watkins.

The trend wasn’t broken in the early second-half exchanges. Just two minutes after the restart, Michael Hector completely lost Tyrone Mings to allow him to tap in Hourihane’s wicked low free-kick. There were then a few worrying signs for Scott Parker, who will grow ever more frustrated with his side’s failing pursuit of Sassuolo defender Marlon.

Elation for the Villans

On the plus side, Villa’s massive summer spending seems to be paying off again.

Aside from his error for the disallowed Fulham goal, Emiliano Martinez put in another solid display in between the sticks for Villa. To go with his penalty save from last week’s tie against Sheffield United, he made a wonderful diving save from Joe Bryan’s late effort to preserve the clean sheet.

Matty Cash also put in a stellar display at right-back while Ollie Watkins’ display saw everything apart from a goal. Youngster Jacob Ramsey also fit right in on his Premier League debut to encourage Dean Smith to pick him in the future. This is in sharp contrast to Villa’s signings last season who rarely looked like a complete unit. Villa look as if they could have a much safer season this time around.

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