Fulham welcome Newcastle United at Craven Cottage on Saturday afternoon, with both teams trying to rebound from poor midweek results.
Newcastle dropped points late against Everton after giving Sean Dyche’s side a penalty, while Fulham were destroyed by Nottingham Forest.
Neither team has had a good run of form this season, with inconsistency being a pattern for both clubs, making this a difficult game to predict.
Newcastle will be trying to emulate last season’s exploits at the Cottage, when they won 4-1 in the first game of Miguel Almiron’s Goal of the Month campaign.
Being compared to Chelsea used to be a positive thing.
Chris Sutton, writing for the BBC website, predicted a home win for this game and wasn’t particularly kind to Newcastle.
“Newcastle’s inconsistency means they’re becoming the next Chelsea, which is bad news for them and my projections.
“Fulham has been up and down as well, but they are generally more reliable at home, and the Magpies’ squad is still stretched thin due to injuries, and some of their players appear to be running on empty.
“Compared to last season, Newcastle’s defensive record is substantially poorer this time; they conceded 33 goals in 38 games in 2022-23, but have already conceded 52 in 30 games this season.
“A lot of that is due to the fact that their normal back five from last season, defenders Kieran Trippier, Dan Burn, Fabian Shar, and Sven Botman, together with goalkeeper Nick Pope, have missed so many games this season.
“Those five players each started at least 35 league games last season, but there hasn’t been anything close to that consistency in recent months.
“That’s a big reason why teams have been able to get to them, and I anticipate Fulham to do the same on Saturday.
“Sutton’s prediction: 2-1”
Newcastle has to begin a run of results with a win on Saturday.
Aside from Newcastle’s defensive flaws, we’d like to believe we have enough offensive firepower to cause Fulham difficulties and win.
The simple conclusion is that Newcastle must put together a run of solid wins with only eight games remaining.
Eddie Howe’s side is within touching distance of European qualification, which is an incredible achievement in and of itself, but securing it would silence many naysayers.
