Fulham at Crystal Palace

Fulham starts off the new year at Crystal Palace on Thursday. Kickoff is at 12:30pm EST on Peacock.

The schedule was put together a little oddly this year. This is Fulham's 19th match of the season, so you would think it would be against Liverpool - the only team Fulham hasn't played yet, but instead it is against Palace who Fulham played just a few weeks ago. Fulham will face Liverpool next weekend, but for some reason every team in the league is playing someone they already faced before playing the remaining team that they haven't played yet.

Fulham played Palace three times in 2025, all at Craven Cottage, and all solid wins for Palace with an aggregate score of 1 for Fulham and 7 for Palace. Things have been better for Fulham over at Selhurst Park, so hopefully with 2025 behind Fulham they can turn around recent results against Palace.

Palace has been in a rut recently, losing three in a row in the league while Fulham won three in a row. This has put the two even on points and only separated by a 2 goal difference. In fact, their last win in the league was against... Fulham. That win briefly put Palace in the Champions League spots. If Fulham manage to win on New Years Day, they will jump up to 7th place - at least until Sunderland and Brentford complete their matches later in the day.

However, I do not think that Fulham will win. Fulham has eked out wins against lower table teams while Iwobi, Chukwueze, and Bassey have been out. Palace has been struggling, but I think they will prove to be far tougher for Fulham than West Ham, Forest, or Burnley. I expect another late winner from Palace that feels a little too familiar.

 

I'm feeling optimistic about tomorrow's game for some reason. Perhaps it's because one of the worst years of my 55 will have finally ended.

The locker room will be motivated given our recent losses to Palace. I hope Silva makes a change to the starting 11 (giving both King and ESR a start), but I don't expect him to. I do think we will play better than in the last few Prem games and will grab at least a point.

Happy New Year, everyone!