Fulham v Chelsea – Preview, Predictions and Best Bets

Fulham host Chelsea at Craven Cottage on Saturday in the West London derby. Former teammates with England and Chelsea face off as Scott Parker takes on Frank Lampard. Chelsea are in dire form and face a Cottagers side who have had an upturn of late but have only two rest days before this match.

Fulham Form

Parker’s men beat QPR 2-0 in the FA Cup after it ended 0-0 after 90 minutes and extra time was required. They followed that with a fine 1-1 draw with Tottenham after a late equaliser. The Cottagers have drawn five on the bounce in the league including 1-1 against Liverpool, 0-0 against Brighton, 1-1 at Newcastle and 0-0 against Southampton.

Fulham had started the season with five losses in their first six matches before a 2-0 home win against West Brom, two more defeats and then a 2-1 win away at Leicester. With five draws and two wins in their last ten, Parker’s team have moved two points off Brighton with a match in hand in 18th place.

Fulham Team News

Fulham will be without on-loan Ruben Loftus-Cheek in midfield for this match as he is ineligible to face his parent club. Josh Onomah is back from a series of injuries in midfield and will boost options in Loftus-Cheek’s absence, perhaps even starting this derby.

Kenny Tete’s return from a torn calf muscle has boosted the team at right back and Fulham are now free of injuries even if some players are lacking match fitness after isolating due to COVID-19. Fulham made seven changes from their 0-0 draw against Southampton to their 2-0 win against QPR and most of those players returned against Spurs. A very similar starting XI is expected against Chelsea.

Fulham Motivation

Scott Parker would be delighted with a draw in this match. He has recently set his side up in a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 setup which morphs into a pretty solid 5-4-1 when defending.

They are likely to sit off Chelsea in quite a low block and use the dribbling ability of André-Frank Anguissa and Ademola Lookman to break into any space behind the opposition fullbacks and defensive midfielder. They are capable of making one change to move to a back four if chasing games.

Chelsea Form

Although they picked up a morale boosting 4-0 win against Morecambe in the FA Cup last week (with Timo Werner ending a 12 game scoring drought), Chelsea have been in dire form.

A long unbeaten run, which included eight wins in 10 at one point and going top of the Premier League at full time after beating Leeds, has ended in spectacular fashion. Defeats at Everton and Wolves followed before a 3-0 win against West Ham. A 1-1 draw with Aston Villa was sandwiched between 3-1 losses to Arsenal and Man City. In both matches, Chelsea were 3-0 down in shambolic displays.

Chelsea Team News

After Reece James returned to training this week, Chelsea have no major injuries. However, N’Golo Kanté misses this match through suspension so Lampard will need to choose between teenager Billy Gilmour and Jorginho in the holding midfield role.

In attack, Timo Werner, Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech are expected to start together for just the second time even though Tammy Abraham and Olivier Giroud have scored 13 in their last 13 starts between them. Kai Havertz should start in midfield after netting against Morecambe.

Chelsea Motivation

A defeat or even a draw would see pressure ramp up on Lampard and he will therefore attack and go all out to win the match. If the scores are level in the second half, he will add extra firepower from the bench and risk defeat in order to try to win.

The coach will expect a fast start from his team but the results when he has a full week to prepare his team have been very poor with many lethargic performances.

Key Stats

Fulham have drawn 6 matches in a row in 90 minutes

Fulham are 6 PL matches without a win

Fulham have won 1 of their last 8 home PL matches (L4, D3)

Fulham have seen under 2.5 goals in their last 3 home matches

Fulham have seen under 2.5 goals in their last 6 PL matches

Chelsea have won 1 of their last 7 PL matches

Chelsea are 6 PL matches without a clean sheet

Prediction

Chelsea simply have to win. This is a derby match, they don’t have to travel, Fulham played on Wednesday and have had COVID-19 in the squad so Lampard’s side should be fresher and should have enough to take the points.