Fulham vs. Southampton

Fulham will host bottom of the league Southampton on Sunday with kickoff at 9am EST on Peacock.

This one has "banana skin" written all over it. Fulham has done really well against teams in contention for European spots, but their last loss was at home against a woeful Wolverhampton team that has lost four straight matches since - and lost their manager too. Fulham also struggled against fellow relegation fodder, Ipswich. Just one point from two teams that have a collective 21 points between them.

Meanwhile Southampton, who at 5 points have one of the worst records ever in the Premier League, will come into this match looking for that new manager bounce. They almost certainly won't continue the style of play that earned them the league's worst goal differential - 9 goals worse than Wolverhampton. Southampton also showed a lot of heart in their mid-week loss against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup. They were very close to earning a shoot-out at Anfield, although it wasn't quite as strong as the Liverpool squad Fulham faced last weekend.

So despite Fulham's good form and Southampton's terrible record, I have no more confidence heading into this match than any of the prior four. Fulham will be without Pereira who serves a one-game ban for earning five yellows. There is also a good chance Tete will still be out after coming off injured against Liverpool. Anderson will probably still be out and Nelson is out for sure.

This will likely be a far different match from the last four with fewer chances for breakaways. Instead Fulham will likely have to work against a defensively oriented Southampton. Fulham should dominate this match and I think Fulham will earn their chances, but they have to finish. If Fulham are wasteful, we will likely see another disappointing result like Ipswich and Wolverhampton.

 

This match gets me nervous, that Wolves match wasn’t too long ago.

 

Maintain confidence. Maintain confidence.

I'm not sure if that message is more for the team or for me. Like the others here, I am also worried that Fulham may play down to the level of their competition. This match has frustrating written all over it - dominate possession and passing statistics but somehow end up with less shots and possibly goals.

In the team news, Silva gave an estimate of at least 8-10 weeks for Tete to return. Thankfully there is not a drop in quality with Castagne. Andersen is back in training but Nelson and Reed are still a ways out. Bassey and Cairney will be back though.

Fulham have had a few dominating performances this season but haven't really blown anyone out. I say it's about time...