Premiership: Fulham v. Chelsea
Saturday, 23 September 06, 05:13 PM · Comments (2)
Chelsea make the short trip across the west of town this afternoon to face Chris Coleman's Fulham in what is likely to be a full-blooded affair.
Fulham won last season's corresponding fixture 1-0, Luis Boa Morte scoring the winner after 17 minutes. Chelsea were poor in a match that had everything from a sending off to a pitch invasion, and never really looked like taking all three points. It was the Cottagers' first win over the Blues for 27 years.
Jose Mourinho is expecting today's game to be equally as difficult.
"Fulham is always difficult. They play much better against us. They fight much more against us. They will give us a hard game again. That's their season," he said.
Mourinho will be without Michael Ballack after his red card against Liverpool earned a three-game ban. Arjen Robben looks the likely replacement as Joe Cole is still recuperating from his troublesome knee injury.
Fulham are suffering an injury-crisis and will be without a host of first team players including Luis Boa Morte, Jimmy Bullard, Ahmad Elrich, Simon Elliott, Mark Pembridge and Philippe Christanval. There are also doubts over Papa Bouba Diop, Carlos Bocanegra and Brian McBride.
The Blues have only failed to take points off Fulham at Fulham on five of 27 occasions, and have won 16 times at Craven Cottage.
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2 Comments · Add yours
Today should be a comfortable victory: 2-0 or 3-0. If things go well, we should be first by the end of the evening, although I'd be happy if we just consolidated our position in the top three as well.
I also rather welcome Ballack's three games away. It'll give us a chance to return widtth and variety into our game. I'm hoping our midfield consists of Essien in the Makelele role, Lampard on his own further up, with Robben and SWP on the wings. SWP has to come good sometime, and Mourinho should give him this chance.
KTBFFH.
2-0 as I predicted, but not the tight showing that I expected. Obviously Terry being missing had an effect on the team in the first half, and I thought we were quite sloppy, but Ferreira did rather well in the centre. My fears of how we'll cope are slightly eased for now.
Originally, I contested Robben's substitution for Kalou, but evidently, I should know better than to question the Special One. Kalou and Mikel look better each and every time I see them play.
Super Frank saves us again. Drogba and Essien continue to impress, but Shevchenko's lack of involvement is worrying. Bring on Levski Sofia. Let's keep the winning streak going.