Premier League Preview 2012/13: Fulham (A)

Premier League Preview 2012/13: Fulham (A)
May 10, 2013 Gary Fulcher

By Gary Fulcher, Daniel Rhodes and Mihail Vladimirov.

Our penultimate game of the season sees us travel to Craven Cottage to face 12th placed Fulham on Sunday – 3pm kick off UK time. Fulham just need a single point from their two remaining games to all but guarantee their Premier League survival for another year, due to their superior goal difference over Wigan (-11 compared to -23 for the latter) who currently occupy the final relegation place.

Liverpool defeated Fulham 4-0 at Anfield back in December with goals from Skrtel, Gerrard, Downing and Suarez. The corresponding fixture last season saw Fulham claim a 1-0 victory with a late goal from Clint Dempsey securing all three points after the Reds had Jay Spearing sent off 14 minutes earlier.

Premier League record since the two clubs met back in December:

  • Liverpool – P: 18 W: 8 D: 6 L: 4 F: 40 A: 19 GD: +21 Pts: 30
  • Fulham – P: 18 W: 5 D: 5 L: 8 F: 18 A: 24 GD: -6 Pts: 20

Fulham have lost their last four league games (three of them at home) and have picked up just one point from their last five league encounters; that being the 1-1 draw at Aston Villa. Their eight defeats at home this season is the joint second highest in the division shared with three other clubs (Q.P.R., Aston Villa and Newcastle) while only Wigan Athletic with nine home defeats have lost more.

Liverpool have drawn four of their last five league games, failing to score in three of those but the Reds are still the joint third highest scorers in the league and only Manchester City with 17 clean sheets have kept more shut outs than our tally of 15 so far.

The match-day officials for this fixture are:

Referee: M Halsey Assistants: A Garratt, S Beck; Fourth official: A D’Urso

TEAM NEWS

Steven Gerrard (shoulder), Daniel Agger (back), Joe Allen (shoulder), Raheem Sterling (thigh) and Martin Kelly (knee) are all ruled out through injury for Liverpool, while Luis Suarez is suspended.

Fulham are missing Giorgos Karagounis (knock), Mladen Petric (hamstring), Simon Davies (thigh), Ashkan Dejagah (foot) and Mahamadou Diarra (knee) through injury, and Steve Sidwell is suspended after his recent sending off.

Liverpool:

Goalkeepers: Reina, Jones, Gulacsi
Defenders: Johnson, Wisdom, Flanagan, Skrtel, Coates, Carragher (c), Enrique
Midfielders: Lucas, Coutinho, Henderson, Downing, Shelvey, Suso, Assaidi
Strikers: Sturridge, Borini

Fulham:

Goalkeepers: Schwarzer, Somogyi, Etheridge
Defenders: Riise, Senderos, Hangeland (c), Baird, Hughes, Manolev, Riether
Midfielders: Frimpong, Richardson, Duff, Frei, Emanuelson,  Kacaniklic, Enoh
Strikers: Berbatov, Ruiz, Rodallega

This post is for subscribers only.

[ttt-subscribe-article]