Chelsea arrive at the west London derby looking to extend momentum after a 5\u20131 victory over West Ham United. Enzo Maresca\u2019s side finished strongly last weekend and will aim to follow that performance when Fulham visit Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n
Fulham start the 2025\/26 Premier League season still seeking a league victory. Marco Silva\u2019s team remain unbeaten after draws with Brighton and Manchester United and a 2\u20130 Carabao Cup win over Bristol City. Last season\u2019s meetings carried drama: Fulham won the fixture with late goals from Harry Wilson and Rodrigo Muniz, while Chelsea took revenge at Craven Cottage with two late efforts in the return match.<\/p>\n
Injury and availability issues will shape selections. Cole Palmer missed the West Ham game with a groin injury suffered in the warm-up and Maresca has confirmed his absence for the visit of Fulham. The attacking midfielder has also been omitted from Thomas Tuchel\u2019s England squad and will be assessed \u201cday by day\u201d. Chelsea will also be without Levi Colwill for much of the season and Beno\u00eet Badiashile is out for Saturday. Tosin Adarabioyo returned from a knock and should partner Trevoh Chalobah in defence. Rom\u00e9o Lavia is sidelined with a muscle issue and Mykhailo Mudryk is suspended after failing a drugs test.<\/p>\n
Several players are unavailable as they explore transfers. Ben Chilwell, Axel Disasi, Raheem Sterling, Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku will not make the matchday squad, with Nkunku edging towards a move to AC Milan.<\/p>\n
Sporting considerations mean Marco Silva may be without Harry Wilson after the forward suffered a foot injury in the midweek win. Antonee Robinson and Ryan Sessegnon returned against Manchester United, while Ra\u00fal Jim\u00e9nez could return after scoring in the Carabao Cup. Emile Smith Rowe may replace Josh King in attacking midfield following his equaliser against Manchester United.<\/p>\n
Predicted lineups (4-2-3-1):
Chelsea: S\u00e1nchez; James, Chalobah, Adarabioyo, Cucurella; Caicedo, Fern\u00e1ndez; Est\u00eav\u00e3o, Pedro, Neto; Delap.
Fulham: Leno; Tete, Andersen, Bassey, Robinson; Luki\u0107, Berge; Traor\u00e9, Smith Rowe, Iwobi; Jim\u00e9nez.<\/p>\n
Chelsea\u2019s attacking resources, with Jo\u00e3o Pedro continuing his form and Est\u00eav\u00e3o rising on his first Premier League start, give them the tools to test Fulham\u2019s organisation and counter-attacking threat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chelsea look to build on five-goal win at home, Fulham remain unbeaten and seek first league victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,713,172],"tags":[319,834,680],"class_list":["post-2237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-fulham","category-epl","tag-cole-palmer","tag-emile-smith-rowe","tag-estevao"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}