Aston Villa v Fulham preview: kick-off time, team news and form
Aston Villa host Fulham at Villa Park on Saturday 31st October 2026, with kick-off at 8pm UK time, in a Premier League fixture that sees two sides heading in very different directions in recent weeks.
Aston Villa currently sit 9th in the Premier League table, while Fulham are down in 15th. Villa head into the match on the back of an encouraging run of league form, having gone LWDWW in their last five Premier League outings, including wins over Tottenham, Newcastle and Manchester City. Fulham's recent Premier League form reads DDLWW, with the west London club picking up back-to-back victories against Hull and Coventry heading into this trip to Birmingham.
Sports Mole reports that Fulham are aiming to end a 12-year losing run on their travels to Aston Villa (Sports Mole), which adds some extra context to what's at stake for the visitors as they look to pick up a rare positive result at Villa Park.
Villa's own recent momentum has been boosted by developments further forward, with Birmingham Live highlighting the impact of Johan Manzambi, who has been described as "so impressive" after stepping in following Morgan Rogers' absence and scoring three goals in his first four starts (Birmingham Live). Birmingham World also notes that Villa's youthful, new-look attack has been making its mark during an upturn in form under Unai Emery (Birmingham World).
On the team news front, Sports Mole has provided the latest injury and suspension update for Villa ahead of the Fulham clash, with Ruggeri, Wan Bissaka and Onana among those mentioned in the fitness picture (Sports Mole). Birmingham Live also covered Unai Emery's pre-match media duties, where he discussed the availability of Jackson and Manzambi as well as touching on Harwood-Bellis and the role of Goretzka (Birmingham Live). Elsewhere, Birmingham Live looked at possible selection calls for the Villa starting XI, including a decision over Alysson and Barkley (Birmingham Live). For Fulham, Sports Mole have put together a predicted lineup for the trip to Villa Park (Sports Mole), while a wider preview piece from the same outlet covered team news and likely lineups for both sides (Sports Mole).
Villa had a midweek Carabao Cup outing at Bournemouth to contend with before this one, with Sky Sports and Sports Mole both covering team news and lineups from that tie, including decisions involving Alejandro Garnacho and Brian Madjo (Sky Sports) (Sports Mole) (Sky Sports), and the Express & Star reporting that nine changes were made to the side for that cup fixture (Express & Star) — context that may have a bearing on freshness levels among Emery's squad heading into the weekend.
Kick-off at Villa Park is 8pm UK time on Saturday 31st October 2026.
Written with the help of AI, using the match facts and the headlines from the publishers credited above. Each point links to the original report — tap the source name to read it in full.
