Another weekend of Premier League action begins on Friday evening when relegation threatened Fulham host a Wolverhampton Wanderers side who have disappointed for much of the campaign but perhaps have a chance to redeem themselves a little here.
This match is much bigger for Fulham than it is for the visitors with the Cottagers knowing that despite their defeat last week, a win will bring them out of the bottom three and pile the pressure on Newcastle later in the weekend.
Where to watch
The match will be shown in full on BT Sport 1 with the build up to the contest beginning at 7.30pm and the match itself kicking off at 8pm.
Fulham
After an unbeaten run got Fulham to the fringes of escaping the bottom three, they have now lost four of their last five and are in danger of undoing all that good work. They have not been cut adrift again in their quest to stay up, but much of that has been down to how useless Newcastle United have been rather than anything positive from Fulham. The door is still open for them though and this is a chance to march through it once again.
If Fulham are going to get out of trouble then you would imagine that they will need to get back to the defensive solidity that they had when they were in the middle of that important run. Things have just gotten away from them at the back as they have strived to score more goals and relieve the pressure on the back line and you sense at some stage they will revert back to type and look to grind out wins once again.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
It is hard to know what to make of Wolverhampton Wanderers this season. Clearly the injury to Raul Jimenez has cast a huge shadow over it but you would have expected a squad with the talent it has within it to have come up with a way to cope and start winning matches by now, so I think it is fair to say that this has been a disappointing campaign from the men from Molineux. The positive thing at least is they are in no immediate threat of danger.
That will all change if they lose here though. Suddenly they will be looking over their shoulders and having failed to win any of their last five matches any confidence that is still in them will gradually drain away and could create a nervy end to the season. Wolves aren’t particularly fluent in front of goal this term and the longer the campaign has gone on the more vulnerable they have looked at the back as well which is not a good combination.
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Team News
Fulham boss Scott Parker will be boosted by the news that the injury that forced Ademola Lookman off last week was not serious and he will be fit to feature here. Tom Cairney remains on the injured list however.
Wolves are still without Willy Boly who is isolating after testing positive for Covid-19 prior to the West Ham defeat on Monday night. Jonny is a long-term injury victim while Joao Moutinho is also out. The game is still too soon for Raul Jimenez.
Betting
Having expected Fulham to stay up for a while, I worry a little for them now. They just don’t seem to be able to take the next step and even when they are in complete control of a game like they were against Aston Villa last weekend they succumbed. Whether it is the pressure of the situation or they are just not good enough I’m not entirely sure but they are being dragged into a position where they have to go looking for wins and I’m not sure that will help them.
If I am honest I don’t necessarily think Wolves are any great shakes but it was noticeable that they had an attacking intent on Monday night with four attackers on the pitch and the scorer of their second goal on the bench and against a side who don’t score many goals such a tactic might yield dividends here. Playing with a little extra freedom will help them as well. If Wolves convert more of the chances they create here they look the more likely winner of the two.
Tips
WON – Back Wolves (+0.25) to beat Fulham for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Bet365
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