90+4 min Wilson threatens to break down the right, Digne goes into the book and another minute goes by.

90+2 min It’s the Bon Jovi moment in added time: half way there. Villa have the ball, but they can’t find the six-yard box, let alone the net.

90+1 min Only four minutes of added time for Villa to salvage this. Wilson gets a booking for something.

89 min The Player of the Match, picked by Lucy Ward, is Joachim Andersen. Interesting choice – he’s been good at the day job but when he went up for a corner, he got a Fulham goal disqualified by being too blatant with his attempt to block Martinez.

88 min Leno sends a goal kick long into a clear blue sky. It yields two or three half-chances as Bobb, again, fails to make full use of a fine position.

85 min Another wild shot from Villa – Digne this time, outside the box. The shot count has been even, 11-10 to Fulham, but Villa have landed only one of theirs on target, to Fulham’s five. Now Bobb bustles into the box and makes it six, though he can’t muster any power.

82 min Chance to Villa! Three neat passes through the middle and Abraham, making space beautifully, just lifts his shot too high.

82 min Another sub for either side: Robinson for Sessegnon, who may have bagged the winner, and Abraham for Watkins, who may have ended up not quite impressing Thomas Tuchel.

80 min Villa go smoothly from one end to the other. Douglas Luiz plays a perpendicular ball to Rogers, who finds Sancho on the left. He cuts in and tees up Luiz, who is just too slow making up his mind whether to shoot.

78 min One of the few midfielders who haven’t just come on, Lukic, wins the ball well in the centre circle. Sessegnon, sent away down the left, skews his shot into the crowd.

76 min Silva follows suit, in a smaller way – sending on Bobb and King for Smith Rowe and Chukwueze, who may be in with a shout for Player of the Match.

75 min Here come the cavalry. Emery sends on two midfielders (Douglas Luiz and Barkley) and two wingers (Sancho and Bailey). McGinn, Tielemans, Bogarde and Buendia make way. So Watkins and Rogers stay on and Abraham has to bide his time.

72 min Wasted opportunity for Fulham! Chukwueze nicks the ball 30 yards out and opts to play in Muniz, who can’t sort his feet out.

70 min It’s a surprise to find the team who only play at weekends making a sub before the team that will spend their next two Thursdays playing a European semi-final. What has Emery got up his sleeve? There’s talk of a job lot, and I can see Douglas Luiz raring to go.

66 min The first substitution comes from Marco Silva: it’s Muniz for Jimenez at the tip of the arrow.

66 min If Fulham can hang onto their slender lead, they will be up to tenth, joining Chelsea and Brentford in a west-London huddle on 48 points. Villa will stay fourth unless Liverpool beat Palace, in which case Villa will slip to fifth on goal difference.

62 min Better from Fulham as Smith Rowe advances into the box, but his shot is a feeble thing.

60 min As the hour glass flips over, Villa are having their best spell since that pair of chances in the first half.

59 min Chance! For Watkins, who races onto a through ball, only to sky it.

56 min Chukwueze, who’s been bright, almost plays a great ball through to Wilson, but Martinez is wise to it.

54 min Villa piece together their first good move of the half and third of the match. McGinn sends a fine ball over to the left, but Rogers can’t deliver the cross.

51 min Bassey hits a long ball straight out of play. The Villa fans muster some jeers, but the Fulham fans won’t mind that.

50 min The second yellow card of the day goes to Pau Torres, for getting too close to Jimenez. The free kick is easily seen off.

49 min As it stands, Fulham are level on points with Chelsea. These two neighbours have taken very different routes to the same place.

48 min Chance for Wilson! With three defenders on him, he could square to Jimenez but prefers to hit a shot, which is scuffed past the post.

46 min Villa kick off and go all the way back to Martinez. There’s a scrap in the middle of the park and Castagne brings down Buendia, earning a yellow card in the process.

Time to open the post. “Tommy Too Cool is in the stands watching on in some fancy looking sunglasses,” says Justin Kavanagh. “Either his future’s so bright he has to wear shades, or else he’s practicing for a life of forced anonymity after this summer’s World Cup.”

“Hi Tim,” says Paul in Brazil, picking up on my aside about blocking. “You sound like you could be the man for this book, could also be an audio sleep aid.” Nice backhand! “Wondering what new rules FIFA/Fafa will have in the World Cup. Just to make it more exciting...”

44 min It was a fine, flowing move that was all about the full-backs. Castagne advanced into the inside-right zone, ignored the man outside him and sent in an excellent cross. The header from Lukic was sharp enough for Martinez to parry rather than gather it in. The ball fell kindly to Sessegnon, near the penalty spot, and he drove it into the corner.

41 min Fulham shine on both wings in the same move. Jimenez races down the right and hooks a cross over his shoulder. There’s nobody in the box, so it reaches Smith Rowe on the left. He sends a lovely little through ball to someone whose cross is, guess what, blocked.

39 min Wilson’s free kick is blocked, but Fulham come again and Sessegnon, in behind, volleys a cross … that can’t quite reach Jimenez.

37 min Fulham, fired up, storm into the D, where Wilson is fouled. McGinn, willing as ever, plays the draft excluder – that’s proper captaincy.

35 min Closer still! Watkins, in the inside-right channel, gets on the ball this time and does so well to shake off Andersen. He carves out just enough space to deliver a shot that goes right across the face and just past the far post.

34 min Close! Suddenly Rogers and Watkins have a two-on-two. Rogers ignores his mate for once, does the slalom and hits a powerful shot – just wide.

32 min Again Fulham flatter to deceive. A cross from Lukic, a lay-off from Jimenez, but the shot from Berge is easily blocked.

30 min A third of the game has slipped past. Fulham have 15 minutes to score in the first half, something they have managed in only two of their last 16 games. They’ve been the better team here, with nothing to show for it.

28 min Fulham are getting forward with ease. Sessegnon sends in a looping cross that’s not precise enough. Then he has two more crosses, both blocked. There is a book to be written on the art of the block, which seems to loom larger and larger. Though the book might be on the dull side.

25 min Another shot on target for Fulham to add to their collection. It’s ambitious from Chukwueze, who spins to shoot from 15 yards and can’t find the power to trouble Martinez.

24 min A promising move from Villa – down the left, round the houses, a cross from the right. It’s blocked, they win a corner, Leno comes off his line and can’t hold on, but nothing comes of it.

22 min Jimenez wins a duel and sends a sizzling diagonal ball through towards Wilson, but the ref, Michael Oliver, feels the duel was won by less than fair means.

20 min Fulham have been pressing hard and now Smith Rowe wins the ball near the left-hand corner flag. He makes a neat turn to advance into the area, only to see the flag go up.

19 min Buendia has an opening to send Watkins away, but his pass is scruffy.

18 min Villa’s turn to have some possession, which draws a fioul from Andersen. The free kick is 35 yards out on the Villa left. As it comes in, Jimenez grapples with Cash on the right and gets away with it, rather jammily.

16 min Thomas Tuchel is in the crowd, looking pensive in a pair of shades. He has to recall Watkins, doesn’t he, if he continues to ignore Danny Welbeck?

15 min Fulham play the ball sideways as if the next stat they want to improve is their touches in the final third.

14 min Fulham may not have tested Martinez but they’ve had two shots on target, which is two more than they had in the whole 100 minutes at Brentford this time last Saturday.

10 min Proper chances at both ends! First Lukic takes a shot from the edge of the box, well struck but too close to Martinez. Then Watkins, cutting in from the left, can only follow suit.

8 min Half-chances at both ends! First Sessegnon curls in a good cross to Jimenez, whose header goes straight at Martinez, though it might have been offside anyway. Then Villa break and Buendia has a blast from distance that goes wide.

6 min Another Villa corner. Digne swings it in but Leno clasps it calmly.

5 min The free kick brings Villa a corner, taken short and then messed up as Jimenez is easily able to clear.

4 min Villa make it into Fulham’s half, where Tielemans wins a free kick 40 yards out.

3 min From the free kick, Fulham make it into the box, where Smith Rowe slips through … and plays a poor square ball that doesn’t find Jimenez.

2 min The first foul is committed by Morgan Rogers, needlessly, on Sander Berge – they were in the centre circle.

1 min Fulham kick off and play the ball around at the back. They’re in all white, so they bear a very slight resemblance to Real Madrid. Villa are in a lot of claret and a little blue.

The teams line up as a drone camera swoops across the Thames. It’s at its sparkling best in the spring sunshine.

Also today, at 5.15pm, there’s an FA Cup semi-final with giant-killing possibilities. Can Southampton knock out the mighty Man City? It may seem far-fetched, but they managed it in the League Cup only three years ago.

The first email of the day has landed, and it’s from a Fulham fan. “We almost never beat Villa and we never beat Emery,” says Richard Hirst, “so my hopes aren’t high.” That’s the spirit!

“But we’ll always have the 2018 play off final to cling to: just a shame John Terry isn’t still Villa’s centre back.”

True, but next time you face Chelsea, he may well be their manager.

So what else is happening today? Quite a lot, as the Premier League takes a Sunday off tomorrow, perhaps in an attempt to show younger fans what life was like in the Seventies.

There are three games at 3pm today. Liverpool entertain Palace, who are 13th and still not out of the race for Europe as they have a game in hand on everyone above them. Liverpool have actually won their last two league games, while crashing out of every other competition. West Ham welcome Everton for the David Moyes derby, which has “hard-fought” written all over it. And Wolves host Spurs in a game Roberto de Zerbi surely has to win if Spurs are to sneak past West Ham to safety.

Then, at 5.30, Arsenal try to remember how to win against Newcastle, who have fallen apart but still look dangerous on paper – and better-equipped than most teams to cope with Arsenal’s manhandling at corners.