A WEST London derby on Monday night sees Fulham entertain their underperforming, big-spending neighbours Chelsea at Craven Cottage.
Mauricio Pochettino was heavily touted as the man to turn around Chelsea's fortunes after last season's absolutely horrible campaign.
And of course, Chelsea being Chelsea he was backed to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds to do it.
But so far he has only a solitary league win against a Luton Town side who look out of their depth in the Premier League while home defeats to Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa were frankly catastrophic.
However, they can take something from their midweek Carabao Cup win against high-flying Brighton and it will take time for the ex-Spurs manager's methods to make an impact.
Fulham are once again happy to bruise the noses of most illustrious opponents and have so far already taken a point at Arsenal as well as knocking Spurs out of the Carabao Cup.
They were hammered 5-1 at Manchester City, but they won't be the last team to suffer at the Etihad and eased past Norwich City in the Carabao Cup in midweek.
And Marco Silva's men will relish trying to increase the misery on their west end rivals.
How the bookies view it
Chelsea are favourites and hovering around the evens mark with a touch of 21/20 with bet365.
Fulham can be backed at 27/10 with Coral and the draw is 12/5 with Paddy Power.
Recent head to heads
Fulma won this fixture 2-1 at Craven Cottage last term and also got a goalless draw at Stamford Bridge.
Those games ended a seven-game winning streak for Chelsea.
Players to watch
Nicolas Jackson grabbed a much-needed goal – his second of the season – in the midweek win over Brighton, but is suspended so preference is for Raheem Sterling, who scored a double against Luton Town, and is 21/10 with William Hill to score anytime.
Alex Iwobi scored his first goal of the season for Fulham against Norwich in midweek and will be looking to kick on here. The Nigerian hitman is 13/2 to score anytime with UniBet.
Anything else catch the eye?
You cannot back either side here with any real degree of confidence and draw has to be the sensible call. Chelsea have given very little indication they are ready to be backed at as short as evens for a trip to a tricky venue against opponents who will be up for it.
And Fulham have already lost a derby 3-0 this season at home to Brentford.
It's hard to make a case for goals either with Chelsea scoring just once away from home and Fulham once at home. Chelsea have also gone three league games without a goal.
So under 2.5 goals has to be backed at 10/11 with bet365.
This English Premier League match between Fulham and Chelsea will be played on Oct 2, 2023 and kick off at 20:00. Check below for our tipsters best Fulham vs Chelsea prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
