Chelsea won the title against Brighton in the Carabao Cup midweek last week. Pochettino and his team will have a chance to extend their winning streak with a trip to Fulham’s stadium.
Chelsea entered the match against Fulham without a win in the Premier League in their last 3 matches. Last weekend, the Blues were drowned by Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge’s home ground in a position with few players. This result causes Chelsea to continue to be stuck in the bottom half of the rankings with 5 points after 6 rounds.
Chelsea started this season with only 1 victory in 6 matches played. The London team has only earned 25 points in 2023, the worst performance among Premier League teams entering round 7, next to Everton.
Midweek, Chelsea won a ticket to continue into the fourth round of the Carabao Cup by defeating Brighton with a score of 1-0. The only goal scorer was striker Nicolas Jackson. However, the Senegalese striker is one of the reasons why Chelsea is sinking this season. He only scored 1 goal from a number of opportunities with an expected goal value of 3.79. This turns Jackson into the player who wastes the most opportunities in the Premier League. Another problem with Jackson is that he gets booked too many times. The 22-year-old player will be absent against Fulham due to suspension for receiving 5 yellow cards, the first player to be suspended in this form in the Premier League this year.
Even though Jackson didn’t play too well, missing this player is still a big loss for Chelsea. Chelsea’s offensive force is already too thin due to injuries, but coach Pochettino now has to face a bigger headache.
Raheem Sterling, Cole Palmer and Armando Broja will shoulder the responsibility of scoring goals for Chelsea in the next match. They were the only lifeline to help Chelsea score their first goal after 3 unsuccessful rounds. In this series of matches, Chelsea created an expected number of goals of 5.5 thanks to launching 45 shots. But the lack of grace of the Blues’ strikers is sinking this team on the rankings and causing them to gradually lose hope in the top 4 race even though the season has only been going for 2 months.
In addition to the issue of strength in attack, Chelsea’s full-back position also makes coach Pochettino think. Reece James has not recovered from injury, Ben Chilwell suffered a new injury as soon as he returned and Malo Gusto was suspended for 3 matches. Marc Cucurella started in the right-back role against Brighton and is likely to continue to keep his position despite not being able to convince Pochettino.Last season, Fulham finished higher than Chelsea for the first time since 1983. Marco Silva and his team started this season very well with 8 points after 6 matches and can aim for the goal. finishing in the top half of the standings once again.
Fulham was held to a 0-0 draw by Crystal Palace in the previous round. Fulham’s winless streak in the London derby also extended to 9. This season, Fulham faced 3 London teams, resulting in 2 draws and 1 loss.
Fulham’s positivity at this time is shown on the defensive front. When holding midfielder Joao Palhinha returned, they immediately kept two clean sheets in a row in the Premier League.
Similar to Chelsea, Fulham’s attack is not very impressive. Raul Jimenez also missed as many opportunities as Nicolas Jackson. The Mexican player failed to score in his last 21 appearances despite achieving an expected goals index of 3.23 goals.
Chelsea’s confrontation record against Fulham is very good, except for last season. In two confrontations last season, Fulham won 4 points from Chelsea, equal to the number of points they tallied in the previous 15 confrontations. Chelsea failed the last time they visited Craven Cottage and Pochettino and his team will try to avoid consecutive defeats at this stadium today.