Premier League leaders Arsenal will make the trip to Craven Cottage to play Fulham in yet another London derby.
The Gunners are the only unbeaten team in all their London derby matches in the Premier League this season, winning all and drawing only Brentford due to referee errors.
Arsenal’s fixture against Fulham comes at a time when they are facing a striker crisis. Gabriel Jesus has been out for over four months and although he returned to training early this week, he is still not game-ready and manager Mikel Arteta insisted he will not be rushed.
Second-choice striker Eddie Nketiah has missed Arsenal’s last two matches due to injury, and it is yet to be seen if he will feature tomorrow. Leandro Trossard, who filled in the striker position in the last couple of matches limped off against Bournemouth last weekend and is believed not to feature for the Gunners tomorrow.
Although Arsenal are in this crisis, it has not affected them that much as the goals continue to be shared amongst the rest of the players like Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, and Martin Odegaard among others. Arsenal will also face former players Bernd Leno and Willian.
For Fulham, manager Marco Silva knows the task ahead is a difficult one, knowing that Arsenal have a far superior head-to-head record against them (P31 W22 D6 L3) and are playing at the top of their game this season. However, he says they will try their best to be tough.
“We know we are going to play against one of the better teams in the country. It will be a tough game for us but we will try our best to be tough for Arsenal. We have to believe in ourselves and the way we are going to play,” Silva told reporters during a pre-match press conference Friday. Fulham are sitting in 7th on the Premier League table and are in contention for European football next season.
Team news
Gabriel Jesus, Eddie Nketiah, and Leandro Trossard are out for Arsenal. Martin Odegaard and Kieran Tierney are back after missing the Europa League tie against Sporting CP due to illness. Mohamed Elneny is a long-term absentee.
For Fulham, Joao Palhinha is out due to suspension; Shane Duffy, Neeskens Kebano, and Layvin Kurzawa are out injured. Tom Cairney returned to training but he is unlikely to feature due to fitness worries, while Cedric Soares is ineligible to play because he is on loan from Arsenal.
