Jamie Carragher believes Fulham should be worried as 'lazy' Aston Villa face wrath of Unai Emery

Fulham have gone under the radar this season, taking full advantage of it being a Premier League campaign when every team is going to beat each other.

Currently sitting in eighth position but only two points behind second-placed Arsenal who face a difficult trip to face Newcastle United, Marco Silva won’t have a better opportunity to climb the table with a visit to Birmingham on the cards and an out of sorts Aston Villa the opposition.

Fulham to face a reinvigorated Aston Villa?

Without a win in six games, Villa currently sit just 18th in the Premier League with only goal difference stopping them from being in 19th and three points off bottom spot.

Unfortunately for Fulham though, a roasting by Unai Emery last time out after drawing with 10-man Sunderland could spark a return to form with Jamie Carragher predicting on Stick to Football that Villa will be fired up.

He said, as he predicted a 1-0 win for Villa: “Unai Emery has called them lazy – they’re going to be at it.”

Roy Keane still has his doubts though, replying: “Aston Villa can’t go six games without a win. Let’s go Desmond – 2-2.”

It is a difficult game to call given Villa’s struggles and Fulham looking like the type of team who will challenge for European places with a bit of luck and results going their way, however, at home, Villa are still a strong team but they have been woefully short of goals only scoring one all season.

“They are definitely a side that falls under the category of being too good to go down, but if they don’t start winning soon, they could easily get sucked into a relegation battle. Fulham have found a way to get things done in recent seasons though so a narrow away win wouldn’t be a surprise.

What did Emery say about Villa flops?

Emery clearly wasn’t happy with his team’s efforts against Sunderland with the defence in particular being targeted for criticism.

He said: "We are trying. Of course, some players need adaptation. For example, Harvey Elliott. He was getting the ball and doing passes so quick behind their defence without options. He needs to understand he has the skills to play more passes and then to do the pass behind, or outside, or inside, with better options to get something more.

"As well, we were lazy sometimes defensively. For example, the way we conceded, we were lazy. When we are playing here, we have to fight in the duels and we were not fighting in all duels. I watched the goal we conceded and we were lazy.”

Ezri Konsa has taken the words of warning the right way and has backed his teammates to turn a corner, starting with the visit of Fulham, via BBC Sport: "When your manager doesn't speak too well of you, it is not a good thing for you. It does bring a bit of fuel into you and you just want to play the next game as soon as possible, to prove everyone wrong. It starts from tomorrow."