Fulham are committing more fouls than any other Premier League side so far this season (15.0 per game) and are facing up against an Aston Villa side that won more fouls than any other team in the Premier League last term (13.7 per game).

Fulham were forced into making 17 fouls in this fixture last season, and while Villa may have made a slow start to the campaign, winning fouls is still a strong part of their game. Andersen has committed six fouls across his five Premier League games this term (1.20 per 90). He’s committed at least one foul in three of these appearances, and will have a 1v1 battle with either Malen or Watkins here.

Andersen frequently follows strikers when they drop into pockets in the midfield, which is a common trait of Villa’s build up under Emery, with the wingers also tucking in quite narrow which could leave Andersen and Bassey outnumbered at times.

Ezri Konsa has won four fouls across his four Premier League appearances this season (1.07 per 90), and should be in a tussle with Rodrigo Muniz here. The Fulham striker has committed nine fouls across his five Premier League appearances this season (2.55 per 90) and is regularly overly physical with opposition centre backs.

Konsa regularly won fouls for Aston Villa last season, he won 47 fouls across his 34 Premier League appearances (1.44 per 90), which is a record that put him in the 97th percentile when compared to other centre backs in this metric.

Konsa contested seven duels in this fixture last season, with Fulham committing 17 fouls on their visit to Villa Park. Raul Jimenez led the line on that day and committed two fouls.

Fulham made a habit of playing very well in games against sides in the top half of the table last season, but would then struggle against the lower ranking sides in the Premier League.

Remarkably, Marco Silva’s side only kept five clean sheets in the Premier League last term, which meant that they were forced to score plenty of goals in order to remain competitive in games.

Fulham have scored in four of their five Premier League matches this season, the exception came in their trip to Stamford Bridge, where they had a goal harshly disallowed. They should be able to take advantage of the somber mood that is currently around Villa Park, which was evident in their nervy 1-0 win over Bologna.

Villa have managed to keep two clean sheets in the Premier League so far this season against Everton and Newcastle, but I’d expect Fulham to breach the Villa backline at least once with how they’ve started the season.

Marco Bizot was forced into making seven saves in Villa’s 1-0 win over Bologna during the week. No part of Villa’s system is really working at the moment, and a lot of it is down to issues they’re having in build up, sides have clocked on to the narrow nature of Villa’s system when they have the ball, and have adjusted the manner of their press to catch out Unai Emery’s side.

This, combined with a lack of speed and flair in the final third, has seen Emi Martinez tested six times across his three Premier League matches (2.00 per game). He’s been forced into making 2+ saves in each of his last two matches against Everton and Sunderland, with the 33 year old called into action 100 times across his 37 appearances for Villa last season (2.82 per 90). 

Fulham forced Martinez into making three saves in this fixture last season and the Cottagers have forced the opposition keeper into making 2+ saves in three of their five Premier League games this term.

Iwobi has steadily improved his end product over the last few seasons in the Premier League, he registered 15 goal contributions for Fulham last season (nine goals, six assists), which was the joint most for the Cottagers alongside Raul Jimenez.

Iwobi is pivotal to Fulham’s actions in the final third and he’s started this season in a similar manner, with three goal contributions across his opening five matches. He was bright in this fixture last season in creating three chances and having two shots, one of which found the target.

Two of Iwobi’s goal contributions this season came against Brentford last time out in a man of the match performance, so he enters this game with some real confidence. Fulham can take the game to Villa here, they’re extremely vulnerable at the moment and still looked pretty sheepish in their 1-0 win over Bologna during the week.

Only Sasa Lukic (12) picked up more yellow cards for Fulham than Antonee Robinson last season (8) with the left back slowly building back to fitness following an injury at the start of the season.

Robinson is one of the most forward thinking fullbacks in the league, but this can sometimes be to the detriment of his side, as he can be caught in possession high up the pitch. Few players are blessed with the speed of Robinson, which he often relies on to get back when having bombed forward.

Emery likes his wingers to tuck inside and play quite narrow, so Robinson’s main duels will be up against Matty Cash who has won five fouls across his five Premier League appearances this season (1.04 per 90). Robinson contested 12 duels in this fixture last season, committing one foul with Fulham committing 17 in total.

Malen was preferred to Watkins for Villa during the week against Bologna and offered a fraction more leading the line with that extra bit of speed he has. There’s still a real problem for Villa in that area of the pitch with Watkins low on confidence, and the team as a whole only managing to score three goals across their seven matches in all competitions.

Malen came off the bench to have three shots in this fixture last season, with one of these attempts finding the target. Malen is one of Villa’s few real shot threats at the moment and I’d anticipate Emery giving him another start ahead of Watkins here, with Villa’s top scorer from last season struggling for form and confidence at the moment - he missed a penalty off the bench against Bologna last time out.

Malen had 15 shots and nine shots on target across just 298 minutes of Premier League football last season, with this record returning three goals. He adds speed to the Villa frontline which is something they’ve really lacked across the opening few games of the season.