Fulham welcome relegation battling Burnley to Craven Cottage in a festive Premier League clash.
Victory would see Fulham move up to tenth in the table, whilst Burnley can move up to third bottom if Luton lose elsewhere.
Team News
Fulham have no fresh injury concerns to report after their Carabao Cup win at Everton in midweek.
Tim Ream (calf), Adama Traore (hamstring) and Raul Jimenez (suspension) remain absent.
Burnley will welcome Charlie Taylor back from suspension which saw him miss their league defeat at home to Everton.
Aaron Ramsay (knee), Johann Berg Gudmundsson (unspecified) and Jack Cork (calf) are doubts but Luca Koleosho (knee) remains absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Fulham host Burnley at Craven Cottage in a 3pm GMT kick-off on Saturday 23 December, untelevised live in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Fulham have won one of their last six league meetings against Burnley (W1, D1, L4).
- Burnley have claimed just seven points from their last nine league visits to Fulham (W2, D1, L6).
- There has been no red cards in six previous Premier League meetings between Fulham and Burnley.
- Fulham have won four of their last five league matches at home (W4, L1).
- Coming into this matchweek, no goalkeeper has had more touches on the ball than Burnley’s James Trafford with 1,051 touches in 17 league appearances.
Prediction
Having seen their improved league form grind to a lacklustre halt at Newcastle once down to ten men, Fulham certainly did well to scrap resiliently against Everton in the Carabao Cup where they just got lucky on penalties to reach the semi-finals for the first time in their history.
Now Marco Silva’s Cottagers must take that renewed spirit and show more end product than they mustered on Merseyside, because this is a game that they can win as favourites if able to rediscover their attacking spark of recent weeks despite Jimenez’s absence.
Burnley meanwhile were easily beaten by Everton last weekend in a performance where they struggled with the Toffees’ attacking intensity, although Trafford did a solid job of restricting them to just two first-half goals but they need to start finding points if want to stay up come May.
Craven Cottage though hasn’t been a strong place for Vincent Kompany’s Clarets in recent years and if Fulham can hit their recent attacking stride, this won’t be a happy festive trip to the capital for Burnley by any stretch.
Prediction: Fulham 2-0 Burnley
Result: Fulham 0-2 Burnley