Our sixth game of this fledging Premier League season sees us host newly-promoted Fulham tomorrow at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, kick-off at 3 pm BST. This will mean that half of our fixtures so far this campaign will have been London derbies, having drawn away to Chelsea two weeks back and West Ham this week.
Being back at home will hopefully raise our game a level or two from Wednesday night, and our morale will be boosted further by the return of Romero and Bentancur to the squad ahead of tomorrow’s match, as confirmed by Antonio Conte via London World:
“Cuti (Romero) is ok, he had two training [sessions] with us and he is in the team, and Bentancur is ok.”
“Lucas is in the gym, but aside [from] that, we are ok and working well ahead of the game tomorrow.”
It is unclear whether Gil is fit enough to return to the squad, but, even if he is ruled out, Conte has enough options to rotate this weekend should he feel the need to do so, with the Champions League kicking off next week.
For now, all eyes will be on navigating a tricky fixture against opponents who have made a solid start to life back in the Premiership under Marco Silva.
Indeed, Fulham’s only defeat in five games so far came at the Emirates last weekend. The Cottagers have not had an easy opening set of fixtures either (if there is such a thing in this division), having beaten Brighton and Brentford at home, and held Liverpool and Wolves to accumulate a respectable 8 points from a possible 15.
Unlike us, Fulham were rather busy on deadline day, signing arch-nemesis Willian, Welsh speedster Dan James, experienced left-back Layvin Kurzawa, and of course, as some of you will have noticed, Spurs old boy Carlos Vinicius. This match probably comes too soon for any of the quartet to start, but the visitors have no new injury concerns going into the game. Only long-term absentees Harry Wilson and Manor Solomon are ruled out, with Shane Duffy able to rejoin the squad after being ineligible to face parent club Brighton in midweek.
Irrespective of Fulham’s sturdy start to the season, this is a match we have to win, especially after our dropped points in midweek, whichever way you saw the West Ham result. Our recent record against the Cottagers is remarkable, having lost just one of our last 13 top flight matches against our visitors – the match where Dimi Berbatov came back to haunt us in a 1-0 victory for the visitors at WHL back in March 2013.
Here’s hoping for an improved performance, where we maintain our concentration levels, keep the faffing about at the back with Lloris to a minimum, and do our thing on the break. As always, voice your grievances, score predictions, and preferred XIs, and keep positive (if you can!)…COYS!