Chelsea welcome our closest neighbours Fulham to Stamford Bridge this Saturday for the 12.30pm UK time Premier League match.
We have started this season facing three other London clubs and not one of them has been Spurs or Arsenal. What a strange start to the season in terms of the schedule.
We drew 0-0 with Crystal Palace on the opening game, thrashed West Ham 5-1 because they didn’t get any luck (if you know then you read all my articles), and now we face Fulham this weekend.
Fulham beat Bristol City 2-0 in the Carabao Cup this week so they avoided the Manchester United disease. And City are a Championship side as well, Grimsby are League Two!
And this result means that Fulham have played three games in all competitions this season and are yet to lose. However, the Bristol City win was their first win so far this season.
They have so far had two draws, a 1-1 with Brighton, and then the same result against Manchester United.
They actually had a good preseason, winning all three games in July against Nottingham Forest, Al-Ittihad, and Frankfurt. So really, you can say they’re unbeaten in their last six games!
Fulham are a decent team with a good manager in Marco Silva who has been there a while and has his team playing with organisation, are tough to beat, and very well drilled.
I don’t see it being another West Ham unfortunately. But it is a game that Chelsea and Enzo Maresca should fancy all three points in and at home, should absolutely be taking all three points in.
Against United this season, Fulham actually had the better of the stats with more possession (53%), more shots both on and off target, and more passes.
They also had more possession than Brighton when they played them, albeit only just with 51%. So I’d expect them to come to Stamford Bridge and try to play some football, this may well suit Chelsea. Or at least this should suit Chelsea.
Fulham have players who have mainly been playing together for a sustained period and they all know their roles and how their team mates play. They have solid defenders and a decent keeper as well.
This will be a tough test for Chelsea and I fear for our back line and goalkeeper as always, but this is a game I believe we should win. I’m going 2-1 home win.
