Ten-man Villa slump at Fulham to heap pressure on Gerrard

LONDON: The pressure piled up on Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard as his listless side slumped to a demoralising 3-0 defeat at Fulham after going down to 10 men in the Premier League on Thursday.

The former England captain endured chants of "getting sacked in the morning" by the home fans and was even abused by the away contingent as Harrison Reed and Aleksandar Mitrovic scored for Fulham before a Tyrone Mings own goal completed Villa's misery.

Reed's powerfully-struck shot in the 36th minute gave Fulham a deserved lead after they had gone close several times.

Villa's cause was not helped when Douglas Luiz was shown a red card in the 62nd minute for an off-the-ball clash with Mitrovic and Matty Cash conceded a penalty for handball trying to block a shot six minutes later.

Mitrovic converted the spot-kick for his eighth league goal of the season and Villa's night got even worse when Mings deflected a Neeskens Kebano cross into his own net seven minutes from time.

Another goal for Fulham would have seen Villa drop into the bottom three but the fact they did not was scant consolation for Gerrard who looked grim faced as he walked off.

Villa have nine points from 11 games and are above 18th-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers by virtue of goals scored.

For Marco Silva's Fulham the picture looks far brighter as they climbed to ninth spot with 15 points thanks to their biggest win in the Premier League for nine years.

Gerrard took charge at Villa after Dean Smith's sacking last November but whether he marks his one-year anniversary, or even remains in charge for the weekend clash with Brentford, is looking increasingly doubtful.

Many Villa fans turned their ire on Gerrard who made no attempt to sugar-coat his position.

"I thought I picked