Aston Villa crush Crystal Palace despite Tyrone Mings red card

Fulham within a point of safety after draw against Southampton

Kortney Hause, left, of Aston Villa celebrates with teammates after scoring against Crystal Palace on Saturday. EPA

Aston Villa overcame the sending-off of Tyrone Mings to beat Crystal Palace 3-0 in the Premier League on Saturday, with striker Ollie Watkins playing a part in all of the goals.

Mings was shown a second yellow card in the 45th minute for blocking Wilfried Zaha, with whom the defender had clashed to pick up his first booking.

Villa were leading 1-0 at that point, with Bertrand Traore scoring from a rebound in the fifth minute after Watkins had a shot saved.

Instead of sitting back and protecting the lead, Villa kept pushing forward in the second half and Kortney Hause made it 2-0 in the 66th by nodding the ball over the line from close range after Watkins had headed against the crossbar.

Anwar El Ghazi completed victory with a brilliant third in the 76th, smashing home an angled shot off the post after being teed up by the selfless Watkins.

It was another heavy loss for Palace, who were thrashed 7-0 by Liverpool last weekend.

Meanwhile, Fulham edged to within a point of safety with a 0-0 draw at home with Southampton.

The Londoners were without manager Scott Parker as he was isolating due to a family member testing positive for coronavirus.

However, Fulham did their absent boss proud as they matched a Southampton side flying high at the other end of the table.

Fulham needed a sensational save from Alphonse Areola to claw away James Ward-Prowse's first-half free-kick, while Shane Long and Theo Walcott had late goals ruled out for offside for the visitors, who missed the killer instinct of the injured Danny Ings.