Marco Silva fumes as Fulham left 'confused' in Aston Villa victory
Marco Silva says Fulham were left 'confused' and didn't 'understand' the decision which led to defender Joachim Andersen being sent off during Aston Villa's 3-1 win at Craven Cottage on Saturday. Villa fell behind to a Raul Jimenez strike but responded through Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins, before summer signing Andersen was red carded.
The Dane was given his marching orders following a nudge on Watkins, who was looking to latch onto a through ball from Rogers, and as the last man he was deemed to have denied a goalscoring opportunity. He was duly sent from the pitch, before an Issa Diop own goal confirmed Villa's win, although Jaden Philogene's late red card rather tarnished it.
Silva has led the Cottagers into the upper reaches of the Premier League table this season, although they've now lost a couple of games in succession. Earlier in the campaign, during the 1-1 draw with West Ham - in which the Irons equalised in stoppage time - Adama Traore was subjected to a similar challenge from West Ham defender Max Kilman, for which there was no action taken. Silva was left bemused by what he considered to be an inconsistency.
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“It happened already for us against West Ham and they explained to us that it was soft, but two or three weeks later you see a completely different situation and not consistent to what we’ve seen," he said.
“We are all confused. We all don’t understand. We’re all confused because when things happen we try to understand why and respect. They explained [after the West Ham game] and now completely changed the decision.”