Fulham vs Arsenal Prediction | Opta Analyst
Marco Silva’s side went unbeaten in both Premier League meetings with Mikel Arteta last term. We look ahead to Sunday’s clash with our Fulham vs Arsenal prediction and preview.
Arsenal will aim to further cut the gap on Premier League leaders Liverpool when they visit Fulham for Sunday’s clash at Craven Cottage.
Mikel Arteta’s side overcame Manchester United with a 2-0 win on Wednesday to join Chelsea on 28 points, closing in on Liverpool (35 points) after their 3-3 draw at Newcastle United.
Jurriën Timber and William Saliba did the damage for Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, where Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka provided deadly crosses from corners from either side for the goals in the second half. Arsenal have scored more goals from corners (22) and more goals from set-piece situations (30, excluding penalties) than any other side in the Premier League since the start of last season.
Arsenal have won seven of their eight Premier League London derbies (D1) since losing 2-1 at Fulham in their final game of 2023. The Gunners have also scored 5+ goals in four of those eight derby-day games, as many times as they had in their previous 113 such matches combined.
Arteta may expect more goals here considering Arsenal have scored five or more goals in five different away games in all competitions in 2024, including their last two at Sporting CP and West Ham. However, no English top-flight side has ever done so six times in a single calendar year.
As for team news for Arteta’s side, they could be boosted by the returns of Gabriel Magalhães and Riccardo Calafiori, though Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu remain out for the longer term.
High-flying Fulham have exceeded expectations this term and sit sixth in the table after Thursday’s 3-1 victory over Brighton. Alex Iwobi was twice on target, scoring either side of Matt O’Riley’s own goal, as Carlos Baleba’s second-half leveller proved irrelevant at Craven Cottage.
Fulham are unbeaten in their last eight league London derbies (W4 D4), their longest such run since a run of nine between February 2000 and September 2001, although that streak was ended by a 3-1 home loss to Arsenal.
Marco Silva will hope that is not the case as he aims for back-to-back wins against Arsenal for the first time in his career. The Portuguese boss has won four of his 10 meetings with the Gunners in all competitions, all with different sides (Olympiakos, Watford, Everton and Fulham).
Silva will have midfielder Sasa Lukic back after the Serbia international served a one-match suspension in the win over Brighton, though Tom Cairney remains unavailable following his red card in last weekend’s 1-1 draw at Tottenham.
Fulham vs Arsenal Head-to-HeadRaúl Jiménez and Bobby De Cordova-Reid were on target after Saka’s opener as Fulham came from behind to beat Arsenal 2-1 in this exact fixture last season.
Fulham proved Arteta’s nemesis in last season’s unsuccessful title challenge, too, as Arsenal drew the other league meeting with them. Only between May 2011 and November 2012 have they had a longer winless run against the Cottagers in their top-flight history (4).
However, Sunday’s hosts have never won consecutive league games, or even consecutive home league games, against Arsenal in their history.
Arsenal have also scored at least once in each of their last 18 Premier League games against Fulham, since failing to do so in a goalless draw at the Emirates in February 2009.
Fulham vs Arsenal PredictionThe Opta supercomputer has swayed towards an away win as Arsenal triumphed in 56.3.% of 10,000 pre-match simulations.
Fulham managed history-making consecutive home victories over Arsenal in 20.8% of data-led sims, while the draw occurred in the other 22.9%.
Fulham vs Arsenal Predicted Lineups Opta Power RankingsThe Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off this weekend, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
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