Good afternoon and welcome to live coverage of Fulham v Chelsea at Craven Cottage. I’ll bring you the team news and build-up throughout the next hour, before live coverage of the game itself - which kicks off at 17:30 GMT.
Premier League / Matchday 19
Craven Cottage / 16.01.2021
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Live
Live Updates
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Updated 16/01/2021 at 19:27 GMT
24'
A weak clearance falls straight to the feet of Mount inside the Fulham box and he rattles the crossbar with a thumping shot. That’s comfortably the best chance of the game so far and the ploy of raining in crosses has finally produced something.
23'
Ziyech has a crack from range after a nice lay-off by Giroud, but again Areola has a good view of it and makes a comfortable save.
22'
Lookman goes through the back of Mount and is a tad lucky to escape a booking.
21'
Fulham’s possession stats have dipped below 30% now, but I doubt Scott Parker will be that concerned – they’ve limited Chelsea to speculative efforts while also offering threat of their own on the break.
18'
Lookman does a great job down the flank and hammers a low cross into the feet of Cavaleiro, but the forward can’t quite get it set for a shot. Encouraging signs for Fulham though, particularly in those wide areas where they’re finding some pockets of space.
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Image credit: Getty Images
17'
Robinson gets away down the Fulham left and puts in a decent cross, but Rudiger produces two excellent blocks in quick succession and Chelsea clear.
15'
Again Chelsea go long in search of Giroud in the Fulham box. It’s not hard to see that the visitors feel that is the best approach today, but so far it’s not hugely troubled the Fulham defence.
11'
A cross into the Fulham box can’t quite find Giroud, but the clearance falls invitingly to Chilwell on the volley. Unfortunately the shot only troubles the empty seats in row z.
9'
Giroud has a pop from outside the box with a nice outside-of-the-boot effort, but the keeper sees it all the way and produces a nice save to tip it around the post.
8'
A nice Fulham move puts Tete in a bit of space on the edge of the box, but he looks for another pass to Lookman rather than pulling the trigger and the chance goes begging.
6'
Fulham look to have set up far deeper than they did against Spurs, instead looking content to launch counter-attacks and only press when Chelsea over-play at the back.
4'
A Chelsea corner routine tees up Mount, but his shot from the edge of the box is well blocked.
2'
Pulisic tries to slip Chilwell in down the Chelsea left as the visitors make the running in the opening stages, but his pass is a little under-hit and it’s cut out.
1st Half
1'
Fulham, in their white and black home kit, get the game underway. Chelsea are kitted out in their familiar all-blue.
The players line up around the centre circle for a moment of silence to remember Fulham legend Tosh Chamberlain, who sadly passed away this week at the age of 86.
Here we go then. The players are out at Craven Cottage and we’re moments away from kick-off.
It’ll also be interesting to see how Chelsea’s defence performs today, with rumours circulating that Upamecano is a major transfer target.
The loss of Loftus-Cheek will hurt Fulham today, he’s impressed on his loan spell, enough to prompt some praise from Lampard ahead of this match:
Seeing him play recently, I see him looking fit, fresh and strong. We know he’s an obvious talent so it’s great. If he can keep that up hopefully through the season, and if he can get back to where he was and more, then I’ll be very happy and he’ll come back as our player, for sure.