This year’s round of festive football serves up a juicy London derby between two teams in good form. Chelsea FC is Liverpool’s closest challenger at the top of the table and, Sunday’s blip aside, has been racking up the wins of late. Their West London neighbors have also been faring well recently; they’ve avoided defeat in their last five games. They even managed to steal away from the red fortress that is Anfield with a point.
Even if they’re 10 points behind and six positions below Chelsea, coach Enzo Maresca and his men will know better than to underestimate the Cottagers. The Blues will need the below players to be on their A-game if they’re to prevent Fulham from pillaging any points from Stamford Bridge.
Cole Palmer
Much as they also held their opponents to a goalless draw last weekend, the Fulham defence has been known to concede. They shipped in four against Wolverhampton Wanderers not too long ago. This was likely due to the absence of Issa Diop alongside Calvin Bassey in the Cottagers’ back four. Assuming Fulham’s first-choice defensive pairing will be fully fit and available, with the effective Sander Berge offering cover, picking them apart won’t be easy.
Chelsea will need Cole Palmer to be at his wily best if they’re to find a way through this defensive triad. His ability to draw players out of position and win fouls will be key in creating scoring chances for Nicholas Jackson and tantalizing set-piece situations for himself.
During his pre-game presser, Maresca hinted at Palmer needing help shouldering Chelsea’s creative burden. Hopefully, wingers Pedro Neto, Noni Madueke and Jadon Sancho were paying attention. None of them made an impression on Everton’s defense in the last game.
Moisés Caiceido
A lot of Fulham’s attacking play is either started, finished or channeled through ex-Arsenal forward Alex Iwobi. Though technically a winger, the Nigerian has a free role between defense and attack, popping up wherever he can inflict the most damage on opponents. His through ball allowed Antonee Robinson to break free on the left and send in a cross that led to the opening goal in the Anfield draw. He repeated the trick for the second goal.
Caideido will need to keep a close eye on Iwobi’s movement to keep him from unsettling Chelsea’s backline. He will need to cover every blade of Craven Cottage grass as he shackles the highly mobile Nigerian and provides cover for Malo Gusto and Marc Cucurella. The continued injury-enforced absence of Roméo Lavia means that he and Enzo Fernandez will need to be extra careful not to make the referee reach into his pocket.
Malo Gusto
Cucurella’s return from suspension will be a welcome relief for Maresca. It will allow him to deploy Gusto back to his favored right-back position where he can help deal with the Iwobi-Robinson menace. The Frenchman struggled in the inverted left full-back role on Sunday against Everton and he will be relieved to be reinstated to his preferred role. His return will likely see Axel Disasi demoted to the bench, which many Chelsea supporters won’t mind. Being a natural center-back, Disasi didn’t have his most effective game as a makeshift full-back.
Marc Cucurella
Many Chelsea fans feel that the Spaniard was a big miss in the Blues’ last fixture. Try as he did, Gusto couldn’t replicate Cucu’s clever runs into the opposition box and decisive passing on Sunday. Cucurella’s offensive runs will help open up goalscoring opportunities as well as keep winger Harry Wilson pegged back in his own half.
His tendency to win one-on-one defensive duels will be crucial in quelling the danger Wilson or an overlapping Timothy Castagne can present, choking off Raúl Jiménez/Rodrigo Muniz’s supply line.
Tosin Adarabioyo
Speaking of limiting chances for Fulham’s strikers, renowned for their aerial abilities, Chelsea’s center-backs will have their hands full. Adarabioyo endeared himself further to Blues fans on Sunday with several crucial interventions and calm distribution of the ball from defense.
They will be hoping he can put in an equally astute display against his former employers on Boxing Day. Chelsea keeper Roberto Sanchez will be looking to the 27 year-old to help him deal with the crosses that are sure to bombard his 18-yard box. He will also hope Adarabioyo can be a calming influence on Levi Colwill who seemed out of sorts at Goodison Park.
Fulham’s key men
Going by his recent performances, Alex Iwobi will undoubtedly be a thorn in Chelsea’s flesh. His ability to pick up the ball from deep and distribute it purposefully to marauding wingers is well known. Hopefully Maresca will have a plan to foil the Nigerian. Emile Smith-Rowe, another of Fulham’s ex-Arsenal contingent, may be returning to the squad from injury in time to assist Iwobi in creating chances.
Speaking of injury returnees, Fulham will be hoping defensive-mid Berge will be able to shake off the ankle knock he picked up against Southampton. The Norwegian has proved an able replacement for João Palhinha who left for Bayern Munich this summer.