Jack Grealish inspires Aston Villa thrashing of dire Fulham

Coming into this season, you would have expected promoted Fulham and relegation-avoiding Aston Villa to be somewhat near each other in terms of ambitions and expectations. But as Aston Villa triumphed 0-3 at Craven Cottage, it was clear these two sides are worlds apart.

With greater quality and better structure, Dean Smith’s side were able to make it two wins in their first two matches for just the third time in the Premier League era, and first since 1999/00. More nourishing than even that will be a first clean sheet away from home since January 2016 at West Bromwich Albion.

Though the statistics tonight will show that Scott Parker’s side competed, even out-shooting their opponents, there are only so many ways numbers can show the kind of defensive frailties that were on show on Monday evening. But perhaps the best manifestation of it was a robust conversation between two of Fulham’s three centre-backs.

They were together as part of a new-look system employed by Parker, one that was breached after just four minutes. The discussion, between Denis Odoi and Michael Hector, was around what went wrong as they were breached seamlessly by the vision of John McGinn.

His dinked ball fell perfectly into the path of Grealish who swept in for an early lead after a run that was seen but not heeded. One which was doubled just over 10 minutes later thanks to similar issues around awareness and, well, just being able to defend.

The attacking itself was worthy of praise. A calculated dart by Ollie Watkins down the left dragged one white shirt away from the middle, allowing the striker to feed Grealish who took him up on the newly open space. A pass into McGinn looked to have reversed the roles from the first goal, but his turn and control laid the ball perfectly into the path of Conor Hourihane, who found the corner with a first-time strike. McGinn would have to make do for his first brace of assists in a Villa shirt.

Whatever instructions given at half-time - presumably something on the lines of “stop getting defending wrong” – was immediately ignored when Tyone Mings was inexplicably alone in the box following a free-kick from Hourihane out on the left.

To make matters worse, Fulham would have a goal ruled out for a foul in the box that allowed Bobb De Cordova-Reid to stay onside to convert after an uncharacteristic mistake from Emiliano Martinez. Had it counted, there might have been a rallying effort as we saw during the 4-3 defeat at Leeds United last weekend. But the VAR check and subsequent cancellation knocked the wind out of Fulham, even if they continued to run and harry until the referee’s whistle finally put them out of their misery.

These are still early days for both sides of course, though why wouldn’t a Villa fan take a snapshot of the league as it is now with their side sitting fourth and wonder if this year is to be much better than the last. After all, it took them eight matches to register the two wins they already have.

Whatever happens from now, it is clear Villa will not struggle as they did last season and have every right to feel a top-half finish, while ambitious, is within their grasp. Of course, they were not totally without fault here. But even if those improvements are not forthcoming, they can certainly think relegation is further beneath them than their 17th-place finish last season.