An underwhelming Aston Villa side have been under the hammer so far this season and the pressure built up on manager Steven Gerrard following yet another lacklustre display at Craven Cottage where they suffered a 3-0 loss at the hands of Fulham.
The former England captain was subjected to some humiliation as he faced plenty of stick from even the travelling Villa fans in the away stands after witnessing Harrison Reed and Aleksandar Mitrovic score for the hosts before Tyrone Mings put the ball into his own net to complete Villa’s misery.
After coming close to scoring on several occasions, they deservedly took the lead of the contest through Reed’s powerful strike in the 36th minute of the contest. Chasing the game in the second half, the visitors’ hopes received a massive blow when defensive midfielder Douglas Luiz was given his marching orders for an off-the-ball clash with Mitrovic.
This ended up opening the floodgates as Matty Cash was adjudged to have handled the ball in his own box trying to block a shot six minutes later and a penalty was given to Fulham as a result.
Up stepped Mitrovic to convert it coolly from 12 yards to score his eighth league goal of the season and Villa’s night got even worse when Mings ended up deflecting a Neeskens Kebano cross into his own net seven minutes from the end of regulated time.
Gerrard was sacked from his position in the aftermath of the game.
Elsewhere, there was finally some respite for Leicester City, who moved out of the bottom of the Premier League table with a hard-fought and comfortable 2-0 win over Leeds United on Thursday evening.
The Foxes had managed to wrap up the game inside the first 35 minutes as Robin Koch’s own goal and Harvey Barnes’s sweeping finish put the home side in command at the King Power Stadium. They held on to that lead for the remainder of the contest to secure a much-needed win at home.
Leeds, meanwhile, have slipped to 16th place after going seven games without a win in the league.
