In a West London derby, Chelsea welcomes Fulham to Stamford Bridge on Saturday as the hosts attempt to climb higher on the premier league table, Bet Extract reports.

With a fourth victory in five league games, the Blues will be looking to build on their recent success.

For Chelsea and Mauricio Pochettino, the opening match of the Premier League weekend is crucial as they try to close the gap on the clubs ahead of them in the race for European qualifying. Both teams enter the match fresh off midweek League Cup matches against Middlesbrough and Liverpool.

Pochettino’s team is now ranked tenth, but with a victory, they might move up to seventh before the day’s final games, passing Manchester United, Brighton, and Newcastle. If Fulham wins, they will trail their opponents by just one point with 27 points. Eleventh on the table are the Cottagers.

Chelsea had a good defensive start to the season, but in the last 13 Premier League games, they have only kept one clean sheet due to their struggles in stopping the ball in the net. They have, however, improved offensively as evidenced by their past four home games, all of which ended in victory, where they have scored at least twice. Cole Palmer, who joined the team in the summer and has already tallied eight goals and seven assists, is primarily to blame for this. With Nicolas Jackson away on international duty, an extra offensive boost will be much needed with Christopher Nkunku’s return.

On the other hand, Fulham who have scored nine goals in ten games, have struggled away from home. They have only triumphed once this season, and that was against Everton on the first weekend of the league. With six victories 19 goals scored and 12 goals given up at Craven Cottage, their home and away performances are very different. Twenty-three goals have been allowed. Raul Jimenez and Bobby De Cordova-Reid, who have each scored five goals in all competitions, will be Marco Silva’s main sources of output.

Mykhailo Mudryk and Armando Broja scored two goals in as many minutes to help Chelsea win 2-0 away from home in the rematch in early October. The match this weekend marks the 91st meeting between the two teams in all competitions, with Chelsea winning 51 of those encounters. Though it would only be their second in the previous four games, Fulham will be looking to win just their 13th matchup with the Blues. Their first victory against their hosts in all competitions since March 2006 came in a 2-1 victory in January of the previous year.

Although Mauricio Pochettino has a long list of injuries to deal with, he will be expecting to see some key players return for this weekend’s match against Fulham.

After suffering a knee injury that kept the midfielder out for a long time, Carney Chukwuemeka is also close to returning, as is Ben Chilwell, who has been out since September due to a hamstring ailment.

Benoit Badiashile, who had missed a few games due to a slight injury, will also be looking to play again.

Senegal is travelling with Nicolas Jackson for the Africa Cup of Nations. Wesley Fofana, Marc Cucurella, and Reece James are among the longer-term absentees.

As for Fulham, Calvin Bassey, Alex Iwobi and Fode Ballo-Toure have also all left to compete in the AFCON competition. Luckily for Marco Silva, he has no new fresh injury concern building on Friday night’s triumph over Rotherham.

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