Chelsea vs Fulham
4th vs 20th
PREVIEW
Chelsea welcome Fulham to Stamford Bridge in one of two London derbies taking place on Sunday.
Maurizio Sarri’s side saw their 12 game unbeaten start ended at Tottenham last time out, but responded somewhat with a convincing win over PAOK in the Europa League on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Claudio Ranieri’s reign got off to a perfect start in a 3-2 victory over fellow strugglers Southampton, but ended the weekend bottom following Huddersfield’s victory at Wolves.
Both challenging at opposite ends of the division, it promises to be a mouthwatering fixture.
OPTA STATS
Chelsea have only lost one of their 26 Premier League matches against Fulham (W15 D10), a 0-1 defeat in March 2006.
Fulham have won just one of their 24 away top-flight matches against Chelsea (D9 L14), a 2-1 victory in March 1964 under manager Bedford Jezzard.
This is the first Premier League encounter between Chelsea and Fulham since March 2014, when current Fulham player Andre Schurrle scored a hat-trick for the Blues in a 3-1 win.
Chelsea are winless in their last two Premier League games, last going three without a win back in September 2016 – after which they embarked on a 13 game winning streak en route to winning the Premier League title.
Fulham have lost all three of their London derbies in the Premier League this season, by an aggregate score of 2-10. The last team to lose their first four such matches in a Premier League campaign were Crystal Palace in 2016-17 (5) who ended that run with victory at Chelsea.
Chelsea haven’t lost two London derby matches on consecutive Premier League matchdays since October 2011, when they lost to QPR and Arsenal.
Managers who’ve previously managed Chelsea in the Premier League have never returned to Stamford Bridge and won in 13 attempts (D5 L8), with Claudio Ranieri managing two of those games (D1 L1).
