GW 14: Chelsea vs. Fulham

The final derby game from this weekend’s Premier League is the West London Derby, Chelsea against Fulham. On paper this seems like a very easy game for Chelsea as Fulham are currently in last place coming into the match, while Chelsea are in 4th. To make matters worse for Fulham, they have the worst defence in the league conceding 33 goals from the first 13 matches. The one thing that could save Fulham in this game, is the fact that new boss Claudio Ranieri won his first game in charge and his new system might be able to propel Fulham to victory as it did in their last game. The last time the two teams played was back in 2014 when Chelsea won 3-1. Fulham have lost their last 3 games against Chelsea showing that they often struggle against their West London rivals. With the bad form Fulham have at the moment you would expect a similar storyline, especially with Chelsea at home.

Chelsea come into this game in 4th place now, as they’re behind Tottenham who they lost to last week. They’ve now failed to win their last 2 matches as they drew with Everton a fortnight ago. This maybe shows that they are dropping off in form and might not be the title challengers that we expected them to be a few weeks into the season. Against Tottenham they were very poor and they never really threatened to win the match. In the game they took 13 shots and had 2 on target compared to Tottenham’s 18 shots and 9 on target. This shows that they were really struggling to get into threatening areas and that they weren’t creating a sufficient amount of opportunities. Part of this was because Jorginho was having a bad game. He has been crucial to Chelsea throughout the season and with him having a bad day they really  struggled both when attacking and defending. Chelsea have been poor in attack over the last 2 games and have only score 1 goal in this period. Luckily for Chelsea, they’ll have a good chance to improve this recent form against a side who are really struggling defensively.

In this match N'golo Kante will be incredibly important to the side. As always, he has been superb this season but this time in a more advanced role under Sarri. He is currently making 57 passes a match along with his total 41 tackles and interceptions over the course of the season. He is an incredibly hard worker and like in every game, will be important to his team. Antonio Rudiger is another player definitely worth looking at. He has been the stand out defender for Chelsea this season and his partnership with David Luiz has been brilliant up to this point. He has only made a total of 19 tackles and interceptions but this is largely because of Chelsea’s possession based style of play. This is highlighted by the fact that he has made a total of 1049 passes this season averaging an incredible 80 passes a match. Along with that, his 87 total recoveries is an elite amount, which shows that he is making a defensive contribution. Rudiger is very good in the air which will be important as Fulham’s main striker Mitrovic, has scored 4 headed goals which is the most in the division.

As mentioned earlier, Fulham are in last place and are playing much worse than anyone would have expected them to. The defence is the main issue for Fulham as they have been easily cut apart by almost every team they’ve played against. This list includes teams like Cardiff, Southampton, Huddersfield and Burnley who they have conceded a total of 9 goals against. Chelsea currently have the second best attack in the lead scoring 28 goals, meaning Fulham will definitely need to step up their defensive efforts for the match. Another factor going against Fulham is their away form. Fulham have lost their last 5 Premier League away matches showing that they struggle even more when on the road than they do at home. Ranieri will really need to conjure up some magic if he wants to get a result against this Chelsea side.

The star man for Fulham will undoubtedly be Aleksandar Mitrovic. He has been at the top of his game this season and has been a lethal centre forward. He has 7 goals in the Premier League which means he has scored the second most in the division behind only Aguero, Aubameyang and Sterling. This is very impressive considering all of these players play for teams who have much better creative players around them. As mentioned earlier, Mitrovic has scored 4 of his goals with his head and a strategy for Fulham will definitely be to try to play aerial balls into him. With 2 goals in his last match he looks to have settled in under Ranieri and he’ll be looking to continue his form in front of goal. Sessegnon will be another important player as he is the main creator in this Fulham side. He’s another player who played very well last time out against Southampton, as he grabbed 2 assists in a very good performance. He hasn’t had a brilliant season up to this point but maybe fresh from the last game, he can yet again produce a noteworthy performance.

Chelsea have very few injuries this week with only Moses and Hazard potential doubts for the fixture. Hazard is an incredibly big miss though, as he has scored 7 and assisted 4 this season. If he does miss the match Chelsea will be lacking a lot of their usual creativity and attacking power that he brings to the side. If he does ending up sitting out, Chelsea will mostly likely use a winger combination of Pedro and Willian. His ankle injury isn’t terrible though and it’s not certain that he’ll miss out. Fulham have a couple of more serious injuries as both McDonald and Anguissa are both going to miss out for sure. Although these players aren’t crucial to the side they have played a combined 1183 minutes of Premier League football this season and with both of them being centre mids it could provide a problem. Fulham’s other centre midfielders are Johansen, Seri and Cairney who are all more attacking meaning these injuries could cause more defensive issues for Fulham.

With Fulham on the up under Ranieri and Chelsea perhaps on a downwards spiral, this game might now be more significant. Both teams desperately need a win with Fulham hoping to climb out of the relegation zone and Chelsea in a constant battle for Champions League football. The stats and records really go against Fulham as Chelsea are undefeated against their West London rivals in their last 17 matches. Also, Chelsea are undefeated in their last 10 Premier League home matches and Fulham have lost their last 5 away Premier League matches. With the odds firmly against him, Claudio Ranieri will need somewhat of a miracle and some very good performance for his Fulham team to get a result in the match. I think that the West London Derby will end 2-0 in Chelsea’s favour.