Premier League: West End Boys Come Face to Face

Fulham vs Brentford

Just three miles separate Brentford from Fulham, and the Bees visit Craven Cottage on Saturday for a West London Derby to savour.

Fulham vs Brentfordis a clash between two of the top-flight’s relative newcomers, and two with progressive young managers and a style of play which is easy on the eye.

Both finished in the top half of the table last season, with Thomas Frank’s Brentford in ninth place and Marco Silva’s Fulham in 10th, and they will both aim for another Top 10 finish this term.

The Premier League is an unforgiving place to be at times, but Fulham and Brentford have both made decent starts to the new campaign, as the Cottagers earned a 1-0 win away to Everton, while Brentford drew 2-2 with a new-look Tottenham Hotspur.

The Cottage, on the banks of the River Thames, will be bouncing on Saturday. With sunshine expected in London, it’ll be a great day out for the fans, though it will be deadly serious business on the pitch.

Talking Points

Cottagers aim to replicate last term’s ruthlessness

Fulham’s strength last season was in their superb form against teams in the bottom half of the table and unrelenting consistency. They beat almost every team from 11^th to 20^th, including neighbours Chelsea, and they had a knack of pulling out gritty wins away from home, a useful trait they repeated in their first game of this campaign.

The Premier League 2023 betting odds make the hosts marginal favourites to win this match, and a return of six points from two games would be an amazing start for Silva’s team.

An opener away to Sean Dyche’s Everton presented a stiff test which they passed with a 1-0 victory thanks to a goal from substitute Bobby Decordova-Reid, who was making his 400^th senior appearance. It was an almost perfect away win, as the Toffees’ boss was left to bemoan his team’s wastefulness in front of goal.

But winning the shot count by nine to two on target means nothing when Everton failed to beat the excellent Bernd Leno, and Reid showed the hosts how to do it late in the game.

Brentford can thrive without Toney

Last season, Thomas Frank’s team took the Premier League by storm, demolishing Manchester United and Liverpool and picking up plenty of shock Premier League 2023 results with their fearless style of play.

They did have a lethal weapon in Ivan Toney, who scored 20 goals to finish third in the race for the Golden Boot, but the prolific goal scorer is banned until January for betting irregularities, so the Bees must find a way to win without him.

They managed pretty well last season, winning four and drawing one of the games they played without Toney, and the Bees came close to beating Tottenham on Saturday as goals from Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa gave them a 2-1 lead before Emerson Royal equalised for Spurs.

In Cameroon striker Mbeumo, Brentford have a livewire in attack, while the addition of Mikkel Damsgaard last summer added more strength to the Bees’ frontline, and the 23-year-old could be one to watch in Toney’s absence.

Frank’s Brentford has a strong Danish presence in it with club captain Christian Norgaard an inspirational figure and 27-year-old Mathias Jensen the heartbeat of the team. The Bees will win a lot more admirers this year.

History

The Bees have had the better of the head-to-heads over the past decade, winning eight of the 16 encounters to Fulham’s five, and there have been three draws.

Each of the last three meetings have produced a five-goal thriller. The hosts won 3-2 on both occasions in last season’s Premier League, and when the two teams met in pre-season in a neutral venue in Philadelphia, this time it was Fulham who came out on top with a 3-2 victory.

Pre-season form was patchy in both cases, and the Cottagers have won three and lost three of the last six games, while the Bees have lost two and drawn four.

Betting Tip

There is not much to choose between these two teams at all and, at SBOTOP odds of 2.48, the hosts have the slightest of edges.

Brentford can be backed at 2.58 and, the way they played against Spurs, you can’t rule out an away victory. I think these two teams will cancel each other out, and I can see a 1-1 outcome at odds of 5.22 or a 2-2 draw at 11.52.

But if you fancy a bit of fun and expect the five-goal thrillers to keep coming, then Fulham can be backed at a price of 28.84 to win 3-2, with the Bees at 30.76 to take all three points with a 2-3 victory.

 

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