- Home form: Fulham have won three and lost two of their last five home games.
- Away form: Chelsea have won none, drawn two and lost one of their last three away games.
- Scoring form: Both teams have scored in four of Fulham's last five matches.
Tight West London derby on the cards
Tactical approaches
Alvaro Arbeloa took over as Fulham boss on 8 July 2026 and he has begun to build a solid, compact and high-intensity team that are adept at pressing and counter-attacking. Chelsea have played under Xabi Alonso since he took over at Stamford Bridge on 1 July 2026, but the Spaniard's side are more structured and prefer to dominate the ball and overload the half-spaces.
Prediction
That could lead to a tight tactical matchup at Craven Cottage on Monday, but our selection is for both teams to score with the visitors just about favoured to nick it.
Blues can just edge tight derby
Chelsea are a touch favorite at 1.97 while Fulham are at 3.45, so it is a close matchup and the tie price of 3.65 is a shade generous.
Fulham have been solid but unspectacular in 2026-2027 so far with three wins, four draws and three defeats in their last ten across all competitions. A 1-0 home win over VfB Stuttgart in their most recent assignment was solid, but the 1-2 home defeat to Crystal Palace the previous week showed that they still have some vulnerability.
Chelsea are similarly hard to rate in their recent form because they have played some easy games and some tough ones with four wins, two draws and four defeats in their last 10 across all competitions. But they arrive in better form than Fulham with two victories, no losses and one draw in their most recent three assignments after seeing off AC Milan 3-0 and Real Sociedad 3-1 at home with a wild 3-3 draw at Johor Darul Takzim FC in between.
Both sides can score at Craven Cottage
They are yet to show that they can shut out their opponents on their travels. Fulham have conceded just three goals in five home matches across all current competitions, so it could be a tight matchup at the other end.
Fulham beat Chelsea 2-1 at home in the Premier League 2025/2026, but the Blues have won two of the last three so the derby is finely poised going into this latest episode.
- But Chelsea have still been scoring plenty of goals with 14 in their last five so we're going with both teams to get on the board in this one.
- Over 2.5 goals also appeals at 1.62 because Chelsea's style of play is leading to plenty of open games and this could be another end-to-end derby.
- Fulham have averaged 1.5 goals per game across 5 head-to-heads at this ground and Chelsea have averaged 1.5 as the visitors to Craven Cottage, which suggests this may be close.
