Chelsea FC will take the 10 minute trip down the Fulham Road on Saturday afternoon to take on West London neighbors Fulham FC in a Barclay’s Premier League match. The West London Derby is not the most prolific of rivalry matches that take place between neighboring clubs around England (and Wales), but it is still a local rivalry and so supporters will of course be up for it.
Chelsea comes into this week’s match with the Cottagers sitting top of the table in the Premier League with a chance this week and next to put some distance between themselves and their title rivals Manchester City, who are off for the next two weeks due to their involvement in the Capital One (League) Cup Final and the FA Cup quarterfinals, respectively.
Chelsea are coming off a difficult midweek fixture in Istanbul against Turkish Champions Galatasaray in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday and will look to rotate players from their midweek squad for Saturday’s match. Meaning Fulham may have an opportunity to take advantage of a less than rested Chelsea squad, and new Fulham manager Felix Magath understands this, claiming it will be a different kind of Chelsea side they would face this week.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho echoed those sentiments, agreeing that it’s a different situation due to his squads travel back from Istanbul and lack of training for this match. Despite the short turnaround and limited information about the squad’s fitness, fans of the boys in royal blue shouldn’t worry too much as history is on their side. In 25 meetings in the Barclay’s Premier League, Fulham have only defeated Chelsea once, the Blues however have won 14 of 25 matches.
The match-up that favors Chelsea the most is their rock solid defense, it seems regardless of the back four that lines up for Jose Mourinho the Blues will defend to the last man. Chelsea have conceded just 21 goals so far in the Premier League, that’s good enough to leave them top of the table for goals against. Fulham however, have allowed a stunning 59 goals against this season, and the prospect of facing creative and talented players such as Oscar and Eden Hazard must leave the Fulham defenders waking in a cold sweat at night.
Chelsea will be boosted by the return of central midfielder Nemanja Matic, whose has shown great skill and presence since his return from Benefica at the end of the January transfer window, he was especially brilliant controlling the midfield in the thrilling 1-0 win over Manchester City at the Ethiad Stadium. Matic will almost certainly be a starter on Saturday.
Fulham are quite the opposite of Chelsea at the moment, while Chelsea strives to achieve domestic and European trophies, the Cottagers are struggling to stay alive in the Premier League. Fulham sit dead last at the table, another loss would severely damage their hopes of staying up with 12 games to go. While they had a good outing securing a draw at West Bromwich Albion last week, Fulham have a much bigger challenge against Chelsea. It looks bleak for the Cottagers.
Due to the training time for the players, manager Jose Mourinho didn’t reveal any information about the squad for Saturday at Friday’s press conference, but it is possible we could see recent signing Mohamed Salah get his first start for the Blues. David Luiz and John Obi Mikel could also be in the lineup for Chelsea, having been cleared to play v Galatasaray midweek. Luiz did not feature, and Mikel came on as a substitute on 67 minutes.
The West London derby holds a special place in my heart, as the Chelsea-Fulham match in November 2012 was the first match I attended at Stamford Bridge. It was a rather dull match on a rather chilly night, but I’ll never forget the feelings of standing in the Matthew Harding Stand, singing and chanting along with thousands of other Chelsea fans. For this match, I’m predicting a 2-0 win for Chelsea.
KTBFFH!
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