TWO sides neck-and-neck in the English Championship table will lock horns on Friday night as Fulham face Bournemouth at Craven Cottage.
With just one point separating the pair in the standings, the fixture is one of great importance to both clubs who are bidding to return to the promised land of the Premier League.
Despite stretching their unbeaten run to nine matches, Fulham laboured to a 1-1 draw at 17th-placed Preston last time out.
That means Marco Silva's men have drawn their last two matches and former Fulham boss Scott Parker (below) will be more than happy to play the role of party-pooper when he returns to his former club on Friday night.
The Cherries failed to capitalise on Fulham's draw at Deepdale at the weekend as they were held to a 2-2 draw after suffering late collapse against Coventry.
After making their best-ever start to a league season with a 15-game unbeaten run, Bournemouth make the trip to West London having won just one of their last five league games.
Outright Betting
Fulham, who have claimed maximum points in five of their last six league games at Craven Cottage, head into this showdown as odds-on 19/20 (SBK) favourites.
Bournemouth are winless in three matches and the bookies odds suggest that trend will continue, with a Cherries triumph trading at 3/1 (SBK) while a point apiece is an unfancied 14/5 (SBK) with the same firm.
Betting Angles
This feels like a tricky fixture to tackle from a 1×2 perspective, so I'm going to steer clear of the match result market and instead combine 3+ corners each team, each team to receive a card and over two match cards at 4/5 with PaddyPower.
Table-topping Fulham are earning a healthy 5.70 corners per 90 minutes this term, a tally that increases to 6.40 when the capital club are playing at their Craven Cottage base.
Bournemouth have also proven prominent in the corner rankings this season, averaging 5.3 per-game, hitting 3+ flagkicks in 19 of their 20 second-tier outings thus far.
With that in mind, coupled with the likelihood of a decent degree of goalmouth action here, three corners apiece doesn't look like too much to ask of the top two scoring sides in the league.
I'll complete the 4/5 (PaddyPower) combination with each side to receive a card and over two match cards in what should be a closely-fought contest under the West London lights on Friday night.
Both teams are averaging over 1.6 yellow cards per-game this season, not to mention referee Tim Robinson has been one of the more card-happy operators in the Championship this season, averaging 4.5 cards per-game.
I’ll also be waiting to see who starts up front for Fulham and if Aleksandar Mitrovic returns to the team then I'll happily snap up the even-money (PaddyPower) for the Serbian to get on the scoresheet.
The talismanic Fulham frontman has helped himself to 21 goals in 19 league appearances so far and he is also on penalties which is always an added incentive when delving into this market.
This England Championship match between Fulham and Bournemouth will be played on Dec 3, 2021 and kick off at 19:45. Check below for our tipsters best Fulham vs Bournemouth prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
