Can Fulham be the first team to beat Brentford at their new home?

It is a rivalry that needs no introduction. Location is the only similarity between these two at the moment, with one team coming into the game in-form, where the other isn’t. However that won’t matter when the whistle goes for kick-off.

Where to start when introducing these two teams, and this fixture. Brentford and Fulham have a long history against each other. In their 61-game history, nothing can set them apart, as they have both racked up 22 victories, and shared 17 daws. However, there is the one win, only 58 days ago, that counts more than all the others.

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Fulham beat Brentford in the Championship play-off final in August to secure promotion to the Premier League. It was a close game, where added time was required to split them. The loss is a sore point for Brentford, whose loss meant another year waiting to play Premier League football, and they will be out to seek revenge in this Carabao Cup clash.

The other added element is that it is the first game that the two will play in Brentford’s new stadium, and Fulham will be out to ensure they go down in the history books as the first team to beat Brentford there.

Brentford

After losing in the play-offs, and losing the Championship’s joint top-scorer Ollie Watkins, it was tough to see Brentford repeating last seasons play-off finish. However so far, it has been a promising start. In the league, they suffered defeat on the opening day to Birmingham, a win to Huddersfield, and a London derby draw against Millwall.

They have added to this good league start by knocking out newly promoted Wycombe, and two Premier League teams, in the shape of Southampton and West Brom, on their Carabao Cup run and they will be hoping to make it a hat-trick of wins against Premier League teams in this clash.

Brentford will be missing Rico Henry and Mathias Jensen, who both picked up knocks in the Bees’ game against Millwall. There are question marks over whether Said Benrama will play, as he has been absent from all but one match so far this season.

Fulham

It has been a bad week for Fulham. The 3-0 loss against Aston Villa was tough to take, and left may Fulham fans already worried about the rest of the season, but vice-chairman Tony Khan has made matters a little more uncomfortable, after taking to Twitter after the game:

I should + will apologize repeatedly for that performance. I’m sorry everybody. We all need to do a better job. Everyone at the club for the past year worked really hard to get the team up, & now we need to work significantly harder to stay up. I promise better efforts than today

— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) September 28, 2020

It is rare to see apologies like this, but the fact is that after three games, Fulham already appear out of their depth, and everything said is correct, they need to improve.

At the moment, the Carabao Cup is seen as a form of escapism for Fulham, who have enjoyed victories over Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday to get into the fourth round. They won’t need much motivating ahead of the tie, with everyone fully aware how much a win would mean to both fans and club.

Fulham will be buoyed by the arrival of Ademola Lookman, who will be out to show he is good enough to play regular first team football, after his move to RB Leipzig has been less fruitful as was expected.

Scott Parker has a full team to choose from, with no reported injuries. Under normal circumstances, Fulham would ring in the changes, but with the league form, and what a good or bad result here would do, Parker will likely keep a fairly strong team to try and keep the cup run going.

Attack vs Defence

With Jensen out injured, Ethan Pinnock and Charlie Goode will be tasked at dealing with Fulham’s attack. Despite the goals not exactly flowing in the Premier League, Fulham have some tricky players to defend against. Aleksander Mitrovic or Aboubakar Kamara will lead the line, with the likes of Anthony Knockeart and Ivan Cavaleiro supporting. There may even be the introduction of Lookman, who is a tricky player for any defender to deal with.

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Brentford’s attack looks strong, even with Watkins leaving. Ivan Toney has come in, and although he hasn’t hit the ground running, he did score a penalty at the weekend to open his account for the Bees. Brentford also have Emiliano Marcondes there to give Fulham’s defence the run around, as well as Bryan Mbuemo.

Fulham’s defence is likely to include Antonee Robinson, who will be looking to keep Brentford’s right wing at bay. In the middle, Tim Ream. Ream divides opinion in the Premier League, but looks solid in the Championship, and Brentford’s attack will be looking to expose his lack of pace.

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