Aston Villa return from the international break this weekend with a trip to Fulham in the Premier League.
Aston Villa have made an excellent start to the Premier League campaign, collecting 14 points from a possible 21, putting them in fifth position.
Unai Emery will want to build on that start when they travel to Fulham this weekend but the Spaniard could be without multiple first-team stars.
John McGinn is still recovering from a hamstring injury sustained against Wolves in September while fellow Villa star Amadou Onana is an injury doubt for the trip to Fulham.
With Emery set to address the media on Friday, Villa fans will hope to receive some positive news on the injury front after the Premier League revealed the officials for the match.
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Paul Tierney named as VAR for Fulham vs Aston Villa
Darren England will referee the clash between Fulham and Aston Villa while Paul Tierney is on VAR duty.
England has refereed 12 Villans matches across his career, resulting in three wins, four draws and five defeats.
Tierney, on the other hand, has been on VAR five times for Aston Villa, most recently in Villa’s 3-1 victory over Wolves in the Premier League.
The 43-year-old’s appointment for this match does hold some controversy, though, as according to ESPN, Tierney made more errors while operating VAR last season (four) than any other referee in the Premier League – tied with Stuart Attwell.
Villa have been involved with VAR controversy previously, with Jamie Redknapp left baffled by one ‘terrible’ error against Everton last term, and Emery will be hoping that the decisions are on his side this weekend.
Aston Villa’s recent worst VAR decisions in the Premier League
Supporters have a love-hate but mostly hate relationship with VAR, and Aston Villa are no different in that regard.
This was evident when Douglas Luiz was wrongly sent off in Steven Gerrard’s final game in charge against Fulham in October 2022.
The Brazilian was accused of headbutting striker Aleksandar Mitrovic but replays showed he didn’t and the red card was later rescinded.
A more recent decision that went against Villa was in September 2023 when Villa took on Liverpool at Anfield.
Emery’s side got off to the worst possible start when Dominik Szoboszlai netted an opener after three minutes.
However, the goal was highly controversial as Mohamed Salah obstructed the view of Emi Martinez, with VAR failing to intervene and instead awarded the goal.
Villa went on to lose the game 3-0 but fortunately, that decision didn’t have ramifications on their season as Villa qualified for the Champions League.
