Aston Villa FC 1-1 Fulham FC: Premier League Match Report, 31 October 2026

Aston Villa had gone in at half-time ahead three times this season and won all three: 3-2 at Tottenham, 1-0 at Newcastle and 2-1 at home to Manchester City a week earlier. The fourth broke the pattern. Aston Villa FC 1-1 Fulham FC was 1-0 at the break and level at the end, the only goal of the second half going to the visitors. Beyond that split, nothing is on record about how either goal came about.

For Fulham it was the reverse of their opening weekend. The one previous time they had trailed at half-time, at home to Chelsea, they lost 3-2.

Villa were ninth before kick-off, on eleven points from eight games with a goal difference of -3, and in the best spell of their season. After one point from their first four matches, a run that included 4-0 at Brighton and home defeats by Arsenal and Nottingham Forest, they had taken ten from the next four. Fulham, fifteenth on eight points and -2, had followed a slower version of the same curve: two points from their first six, then 1-0 wins at home to Hull and away at Coventry, both clean sheets.

Recent meetings had favoured Villa at home. They won the last two at Villa Park, 1-0 in May 2025 and 3-1 in September 2025, although Fulham took the most recent meeting, 1-0 at Craven Cottage in April.

We published nothing on this match beforehand. It fell on a weekend when the site was standing still, and this page is the record catching up rather than a pick being graded.

Five league games unbeaten now for Villa, three wins and two draws since the home defeat by Forest in mid-September, and twelve points from nine with the goal difference unchanged at -3. Fulham go to nine points, still -2, unbeaten in three, with seven points from those three after two from the six before. The three-point gap between the clubs is exactly what it was at kick-off.

Set against last season, Villa's numbers split in two. They finished fourth on 65 points, about 1.7 a game. The last five matches, eleven points, are better than that; the first four, one point, are why the total still sits below it. Villa Park has been the weaker half of the season so far: one win in five there, against two wins, a draw and a defeat in four away from home.

Fulham finished eleventh on 52 last season. A point a game so far leaves them short of that rate, and three games of improvement is not yet a recovery. The change is in the goals against: one conceded across the last three matches, after ten in the first six.