Two suffering teams clash at Craven Cottage in London on Saturday, both Fulham and Huddersfield will be looking to record their first victory after six matches. The reverse fixture was played at the beginning of November and Huddersfield won it 1-0 thanks to a first-half own-goal scored by Timothy Fosu-Mensah. That was the first victory for Huddersfield in the last ten direct matches, Fulham have been dominating them over the past few decades. In fact, the Cottagers have won three of the last six direct meetings and four of the last five at Craven Cottage.
Fulham have not been doing much better than before under new manager Claudio Ranieri, his reign started with a 3-2 victory over Southampton but then they were unable to win any of the following six matches. It is true that they have lost just three of them, at Chelsea and Manchester United and at home against West Ham, but the draws against Leicester, Newcastle and Wolves are not exactly good results. Fulham are just one point above Huddersfield at the bottom of the Premier League table. Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa is the only injury concern for the home side, but Claudio Ranieri will most likely make some changes due to the packed schedule at the end of December.
Huddersfield are sinking, slowly but surely. They seemed to recover in November, when they secured their first two victories of the season in the Premier League, but then they returned to losing. They lost their last six league matches and dropped to last place in the Premier League table, five points away from safety. It is quite clear now that they can't compete with the bigger teams in the Premier League, but they should do their absolute best to grab points from the encounters with teams like Fulham. Abdelhamid Sabiri, Aaron Mooy, Tommy Smith and Danny Williams are injured and won't be a part of the squad for this match.
Probable line-ups:
Fulham: Rico - Odoi, Mawson, Marchand - Christie, Seri, Chambers, Bryan - Cairney, Mitrovic, Sessegnon
Huddersfield: Lossl - Zanka, Schindler, Kongolo - Hadergjonaj, Bacuna, Hogg, Billing, Lowe - Pritchard - Mounie
My prediction: Fulham to win 2-1, the Cottagers should edge past fellow relegation candidates Huddersfield but both might be heading down at the end of the season.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Fulham win - 2.10
Draw - 3.30
Huddersfield win - 4.00
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