Unai Emery labelled Emiliano Martinez as “the best goalkeeper in the world” after his penalty save helped Aston Villa to a 3-1 victory over Fulham at Craven Cottage.
Fulham broke the deadlock through Raul Jimenez who showed great strength to claim his fourth Premier League goal of the season and fifth overall.
Morgan Rogers’ deflected shot off Calvin Bassey drew the scores level in the ninth minute and, after Martinez replicated his World Cup final heroics to deny Andreas Pereira from 12 yards, Villa went ahead through the clinical Ollie Watkins.
The match was not short of controversy however. Referee Darren England showed a straight red to last man Joachim Andersen for a shove on Watkins.
Villa thrived with the extra man in west London and Issa Diop’s own goal added a third, before Jaden Philogene was shown a second yellow for a light push on Reiss Nelson.
Afterwards Emery lauded number one Martinez, saying: “Emiliano Martinez is the best goalkeeper in the world. We need him in moments like today. I was sitting and I was dreaming of the save he did.”
Watkins’ clinical header off a corner put Villa in the ascendency. The England international climbed highest to reach Youri Tielemans’ corner for his fifth of the campaign.
“Watkins is being consistent, working, tactically and defensively, creating chances, he had one chance in the first half but Leno made a fantastic save,” Emery added.
“He scored off a corner and we were being consistent to get there and he scored a fantastic goal.”
Andersen’s dismissal raised some eyebrows around Craven Cottage.
Fulham were denied a penalty earlier in the season after a similar challenge from West Ham’s Max Kilman on Adama Traore.
Boss Marco Silva has called for more consistency with referees and VAR, saying the decision to send Dane Andersen off was “confusing.”
“For me the referees are trying not to go for soft touches,” Silva said.
“It happened already for us against West Ham, they explained us it was soft but two or three weeks later you see a completely different situation and not consistent to what we’ve seen week in or week out in the Premier League.
“I’m not going to find excuses in the referee as to why we lost the game.
“We’re all confused, we all don’t understand, even for you, for fans for staff, managers and players, we’re all confused because when things happen we try to understand why and respect. They explained us why (vs West Ham) and now completely changed the decision.”
