Suzuki's costly howler denies Aston Villa victory as Fulham snatch point at Villa Park

Zion Suzuki’s calamitous own goal cost Aston Villa all three points as Fulham rescued a 1-1 draw at Villa Park on Saturday, with the Japanese goalkeeper palming a corner behind his own line midway through the second half to cancel out Nicolas Jackson’s opener.

Jackson had given Villa the lead with his fifth goal in five Premier League games, but Suzuki’s error — compounded by John McGinn’s early penalty that struck the crossbar — left Unai Emery’s side unable to build on last week’s impressive win over Manchester City.

Emery was measured in his response to the mistake, choosing instead to highlight a first-half wonder save Suzuki had produced to keep the scores level. “It’s part of football,” the Villa manager said. “Of course, we can identify, and we are responsible and mature to understand. The players, they are making mistakes every match, but maybe one mistake in the middle of the field is not so relevant. But one mistake when it’s a striker to score, or when it is the keeper when he has to save one action clear defensively, those mistakes are more in the focus. But it is part of football. I prefer to speak about the save he did.”

Emery acknowledged the result was ultimately a fair reflection of the 90 minutes, even if Villa created chances to win it late on. “I think we could win in the last 10 minutes because we created two good chances to score,” he said. “We are improving, but it’s not enough. We are understanding the team better, the players in our structure. We are adapting, but still work to do.”

For Fulham, the draw offered relief for manager Alvaro Arbeloa, whose position had come under scrutiny before the game. The Cottagers backed up last week’s win over Coventry with a second-half display that Arbeloa described as “the team we want to be”.

“This is the Premier League, if you want to win a game, you need to fight for every ball,” Arbeloa said. “Since the first minute of the second half, we saw that we can beat anyone in the way that we play. We were more aggressive, we fought for every ball and I think we created so many chances. At the end, it’s one point in a difficult stadium.”

Villa remain inconsistent in the early weeks of the campaign, while Fulham will take encouragement from a performance that suggested their difficult start to the season may be turning.