Chelsea hope to get back to winning ways against Fulham

Chelsea and Fulham kick off a monumental Sunday of football, dubbed Derby Day, at Stamford Bridge, as the local rivals battle it out at different ends of the table.

Blues manager Maurizio Sarri will be hoping his side can bounce back from the result against Tottenham, but more so the performance. The Blues succumbed to a 3-1 defeat with a flat display and rarely troubled their London rivals.

Fulham meanwhile come off the back of a 3-2 home win over Southampton in Claudio Ranieri’s first game in charge. Aleksander Mitrovic proved to be the match winner with two goals against the south coast side, helping Fulham to climb out of the relegation zone.

The Lilywhites have a terrible record in the fixtures between these two sides having failed to take all three points of Chelsea since 2006, when a Luis Boa Morte strike served up a 1-0 win at Craven Cottage.

The last time these sides met was back in 2014, the season Ranieri’s new club were relegated. Chelsea earned a 3-1 victory with now Fulham player Andre Schurrle scoring a hattrick.

Chelsea have just one serious injury concern, Eden Hazard has suffered an ankle and back injury recently and missed the Europa League tie against PAOK in midweek. Sarri will be hoping the Belgian can recover for the game, but is touch-and-go as far as he is concerned. Other absentees are long term sufferers Marco Van Ginkel and Victor Moses.

Fulham will be without record signing André-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Kevin McDonald this weekend, both are slight doubts for the visit to Chelsea. It is expected they will miss the game to ensure they are available for the festive fixtures that lie ahead.

Even without star man Hazard, Chelsea have enough quality throughout the team to put Fulham to the sword. Pedro, Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud all impress midweek whilst youngster Callum Hudson-Odoi will be hoping his Europa League goal will be enough for him to get minutes on the pitch this weekend.

Matches involving The Cottagers average 3.6 goals, unfortunately for Ranieri most of those tend to be at the wrong end of the pitch. Fulham have conceded 33 goals in 13 games, comfortably a Premier League high this season.

Prediction: Chelsea 4-0 Fulham

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