Premier League: Fulham Set Their Sights on Busy Seagulls

Fulham vs Brighton & Hove Albion

12^th plays seventh at Craven Cottage on Saturday, when Premier League: Fulham vs Brighton is the box office draw in West London.

Marco Silva’s Fulham come into the game on the back of an impressive 1-2 win away to Manchester United while Brighton drew 1-1 at home to Everton last weekend, and the Seagulls have an FA Cup clash away to Wolves on Wednesday night. So this could be a good opportunity for the Cottagers to catch Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton on the run.

The Seagulls have been stretched of late and will be sweating on the fitness of some key players, and they have suffered a couple of losses on the road in recent weeks…but they are always a dangerous side and Silva knows his team will have to be at its best to win. The pre-match Fulham vs Brighton betting odds can hardly split the two teams so the result will be decided on small margins.      

Talking Points

Can Fulham build on Old Trafford win?

It is arguably the Cottagers’ best result of the season and there was no fluke in the 2-1 victory at the home of Manchester United as Fulham took the game to the Red Devils. Calvin Bassey scored the opener and, while United levelled through Harry Maguire, Silva’s men pushed on and Alex Iwobi scored a dramatic winner, deep into stoppage time.

The two Super Eagles have the skills to terrorize defences and now that Bassey has ended his goal drought he will be brimming with confidence for the visit of the Seagulls. Both his and Iwobi’s goals have been nominated for Fulham’s Goal of the Month Award for February, and now Cottagers fans will be hoping for more of the same. 

Fulham have plenty of players capable of hurting opposition defences, Brazil striker Rodrigo Muniz scored a brace in a recent 3-1 win over Bournemouth and wide man Willian is back to full fitness and he will be pushing for a start against the Seagulls.      

The hosts will be without midfield ace Joao Palhinha, who serves the second of a two match suspension having accumulated ten yellow cards for the season and, while the Cottagers miss his steely contributions they coped well against Manchester United.  Another player to watch is wing back Antonee Robinson  who is having a superb campaign and, here at SBOTOP, we have picked him out as one of the standout stars at Craven Cottage. He’s a player sure to feature heavily in the Fulham vs Brighton highlights that’s for sure. Robinson’s form has been a big reason in Fulham’s uptick in form since December and his driving runs give the likes of Iwobi chance to find space.   

Brighton’s walking wounded

While Silva has few absentees to worry about, his opposite number De Zerbi has plenty of headaches in the run up to two games in the space of four days. Top scorer Joao Pedro is sidelined for the Wolves game and the trip to Fulham will come too early, while winger Solly March could be out for the season. Midfield dynamo Billy Gilmour is suspended for the league game and now winger Karou Mitoma has just suffered a back injury which could see him out of action for three months. The loss of Mitoma is a huge blow to De Zerbi; the Japan star was in brilliant form last season but he has already missed a chunk of this campaign with an ankle injury.

De Zerbi has said is a ‘bad situation; he has other injury worries but is hopeful that defender Joel Veltman, striker Evan Ferguson and the experienced James Milner might be fit for Saturday… but it will be a race against time and De Zerbi will not bring any players back too early.

History

The Cottagers have had the better of the head-to-head meetings with Brighton, with seven wins to five and there have been four draws. When the two teams met on the South Coast back in October, Palhinha earned Fulham a 1-1 draw after Ferguson had given Brighton a first half lead.    

In terms of recent form, Fulham have won two, drawn two and lost two of the last six while Brighton have won three, drawn one and lost two.  

Betting Tip

These are the two best matched teams in this round of Premier League fixtures and there’s not much to choose between them, with Brighton the marginal favourites at odds of 2.39 with Fulham at 2.44 and the draw is at 3.29.

I think home advantage will help Fulham, Brighton have lost two of their last three away games, and the Seagulls’ tight schedule and injury situation nudges me further towards a home win.  

 

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