Chelsea FC will travel walking distance, down the Fulham Road to Craven Cottage for the southwest London derby on Monday night. Blues boss Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t really have a striker available for this Monday Night Football clash, so what will he do against Fulham?
Christopher Nkunku remains out long term with a knee injury while Nicolas Jackson is suspended for yellow card accumulation.
Chelsea FC at Fulham FYIs
Kickoff: Mon. Oct. 2, 8pm, Craven Cottage, London, UK
Chelsea Preview Material: Full Fitness/Injury Report Starting XI Prediction
Transatlantic Passage: How the Premier League Redefined Soccer in America: LINK
PL Position, Form: Chelsea 14th, 5 pts, LDLWL Fulham 8th, 9 pts, DWLDL
Google Result Probability: Chelsea 48% Draw 27% Fulham 25%
We have a few options, to play with a striker and without a striker,” Pochettino said.
“We need to assess the whole squad after the game, things appear after 48 hours and we need to see how they are and how they recover from Wednesday. The most important thing is to adapt, the squad needs to find a way to perform, that is the most important.”
So what does that adaptation look like? This is our best (educated) guess.
Chelsea FC Starting XI Prediction at Fulham
Robert Sanchez; Axel Disasi, Thiago Silva, Levi Colwill, Marc Cucurella; Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, Cole Palmer; Ian Maatsen, Raheem Sterling, Mykhailo Mudryk
Prediction: Chelsea 2, Fulham 1
The bigger of the two southwest London clubs are just simply due at this point.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now. Follow the website on Twitter and Instagram.