Fulham vs Chelsea: Preview and Prediction

Sunday 3rd March 2019

England Premier League
Sunday 3rd March 2019
Kick off at 2:05pm GMT
Venue: Craven Cottage

Match Preview:

Claudio Ranieri was sacked as Fulham manager probably to spare his blushes of winning the Premier League and getting a club relegated, the Italian seemed to leave on friendly terms. His replacement is Scott Parker who is in a win-win situation as The Cottagers look like they will be going down anyway. They enter this game in 19^th and 10 points from safety.

Fulham's last game ended in a 2-0 defeat against Southampton and they come into this game having lost their last 4 in a row. This is, of course, a West London derby and there should be an added element to this game where the outsiders at home will want to give a good performance.

Chelsea have perhaps ridden their own storm although there is no guarantee that it is over. However the club have qualified for the quarter finals of the Europa League and recovered from losing 6-0 against Manchester City in the league to win their next match 2-0 against a direct top 4 rival in Tottenham. Indeed Chelsea have a game in hand and even though they are in 6^th place if they were to win here and their extra game they would be back in 4th so there really is everything to play for.

The rub though is that the club have lost their last 3 Premier League away games and conceded 12 goals in that time, although two of those defeats were against City as mentioned and Arsenal. The Blues have won 54% of their games away from home.

Team News:

Fulham: Andre Schurrle has an illness but will try and be ready for this game, apart from him there are no new injury problems for the side

Chelsea: The Blues have no new injuries coming into this game

Fulham vs Chelsea Head to Head:

Earlier this season Chelsea beat Fulham 2-0.

The teams have not played at Fulham since 2014 when Chelsea won 3-1.

Fulham have not beaten Chelsea since 2006 and that is their only win over their rivals in the last 21 games.

Fulham vs Chelsea Prediction:

Fulham have changed manager but it is questionable it will make any significant change to the side. At some point clubs need to realise players are accountable too, and chopping and changing managers will make little difference if the players aren't good enough. Chelsea are far superior and even though The Blues have suffered away lately they should have more than enough to win this game. Fulham will give a good account of themselves, the players will be motivated by this derby and want to give a good performance at home, especially with this being Parker’s first game in charge. This is why we think we should go for more goals to be scored as the game progresses, but we can’t look past a Chelsea win here and more problems for Fulham .

Fulham vs Chelsea Betting Tips:

Chelsea to beat Fulham at 1.50

Highest Scoring Half: 2^nd half at 2.10