FULHAM PREVIEW

Sunderland restart their Premier League campaign, following on from the third international break of the season, with a trip to Craven Cottage. With us seeing just one defeat from our last nine Premier League matches, we can go into this one with some confidence of getting a result against a Fulham side who haven’t really got going this season yet. Here’s all of the key information on our opponents:

FORM

Fulham have won just once out of their last five Premier League matches (at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers) losing the other four (away to Bournemouth, Newcastle United and Everton and at home to Arsenal). If you include games in all competitions, they’ve still only managed one win but there’s also a draw with Wycombe Wanderers in the League Cup added into the mix. The Cottagers did win on penalties though, if that’s any solace. All three of their wins in the Premier League, and both of their wins in the League Cup, have come at home this season though. Although I’d argue they’ve not beaten anyone who we haven’t been better than so far, the victories coming at the expense of Leeds United, Brentford, (as mentioned) Wolves and then also Bristol City and Cambridge United. Their most recent outing resulted in a 2-0 loss at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.

THE MANAGER

48-year-old Marco Silva is currently in charge of our opponents. He’s been in the dugout since July 2021 and this game will take him to within one match of 200 games managed for the club. Of his 198 matches so far, he’s overseen 86 wins, 43 draws and 69 defeats.  Previously, he was a right back who mostly plied his trade in the second and third tiers of Portuguese football. After he retired in 2011, he took the Estoril job and took them up to the top flight of Portugal via the second division title in 2012. In 2014, he moved to Sporting CP and won the Taça de Portugal (the Cup of Portugal) the following year. At the start of the 2015-16 season, he moved outside of his home country for the first time to Olympiacos. Whilst there, he managed them to a league title and won just under 80% of his games in all competitions. New Year 2017 brought him to England with Hull City but he failed to keep them above the bottom three in the top flight and resigned after just four months. He then took the job with Watford but was sacked after just 26 games due to pressure from Everton to pry him from Hertfordshire. Eventually, Silva did go to Everton and lasted 60 games but was let go after they fell into the relegation spots. Around 19 months later, he was given an opportunity by Fulham to replace Scott Parker and he took them up to the Premier League as champions of the Championship in his first season. Ironically pipping Parker’s side to the top spot by just two points.

KEY PLAYERS

Fulham’s current number one goalkeeper is Germany international Bernd Leno. He’s kept two clean sheets in his 11 appearances this season. Four of their players are tied for their top goalscorer, though none of them have managed more than two. They are centre forward Raul Jimenez, attacking midfielder Emile Smith Rowe, right winger Harry Wilson and left back Ryan Sessegnon. It’s also a crowded field for the accolade of top playmaker, with three of their players having registered two assists each. This time around it’s left winger Alex Iwobi, central midfielder Sasa Lukic and Sessegnon again. New additions in the summer included left winger Kevin and goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte.

THE STADIUM

Recently expanded to just under 30,000 capacity, Craven Cottage spent the first 116 years of its life not as a football stadium but as a cottage instead. It was the home of Fulham between 1896 and 2002 but from 2002-04 Fulham couldn’t play at the Cottage because the stadium hadn’t yet been converted into an all-seater venue following the Taylor Report of 1990. Since 2004 however, it has been the home of Fulham without interruption. This stadium has held the most Australia national team fixtures of any ground outside Australia and the ground has a tree within it, the only British senior football stadium to have one. It is the fifth smallest stadium in the Premier League.

PREDICTION

This isn’t an easy fixture by any means, especially away from home given their form on their own soil (three wins from five PL games). However, as I said, they’ve not beaten anyone we've not been better than so far, so we should be confident we can go and win. A win per month (plus a few draws) will keep us up and if we win this one it takes the pressure off of Bournemouth. I can’t see us scoring loads, Fulham have only conceded three goals in the Premier League at Craven Cottage in five matches, but I do think we are robust enough defensively to see out a clean sheet. 1-0 to Sunderland.