Fulham v Chelsea: Take two 13/2 Bet Builders or combine selections for a 64/1 shot

• Fulham last sat above Chelsea over 57 years ago

• No side performing worse than Chelsea over last 8 games

• Two 13/2 Bet Builders on offer

• Combine six selections into one at 64/1

• Potter 6/1 to be next PL manager to leave

Fulham v Chelsea
Thursday January 12th, 20:00
Live on Sky Sports

Fulham top of West London pile

Fulham welcome Chelsea to Craven Cottage on Thursday in a re-arranged Premier League clash. There's nothing unfamiliar about that, until you look at the Premier League table before we kick-off.

Fulham are sat in seventh on 28 points - already the same number of points they managed throughout the whole 2020-21 top-flight campaign - and the highest placed West London club. Chelsea, on 25 points, are the lowest such team in 10^th, with Brentford also above the Blues in ninth.

Indeed, Fulham are coming into a Premier League game with Chelsea sat above their rivals for the first time in the competition's history, last having such small bragging rights more than 57 years ago, in 1965.

Those stats - provided by Opta - speak volumes of both Fulham's incredible season so far, and Chelsea's worrying one.

Potter 6/1 to be next PL casualty

Chelsea fans sang for Thomas Tuchel during their 0-4 defeat to Man City in a worrying change of tone for Graham Potter.

Potter, who replaced Tuchel in September, has struggled to implement his methods just yet at Chelsea, which isn't wholly surprising considering the small amount of time he's been at Stamford Bridge, but now out of both domestic cup competitions - both times to Man City - and 10 points behind the top four, the club's patience may well wear thin.

He is 6/1 to be the next manager to leave, which is nothing compared to odds-on favourtite Frank Lampard (4/9), but would a West London derby defeat here push Todd Boehly to the brink? I think it's fair to assume that three defeats in a week could be the start of the end for Potter.

Chelsea remains 6/1 to reach the top four come May and are 10/1 to finish in the bottom half. Those prices are tempting ahead of this game depending on which way you think this will go, and ahead of any potential change.

You can also back Potter to go before the end of the season & Chelsea to finish in the bottom 10 at 14/1 in Betfair's #OddsOnThat Chelsea specials - have a look at these here.

BTTS at Craven Cottage?

I'm not sure I'd have thought Chelsea may be the side to worry about when looking at both teams scoring in this fixture earlier in the season, but that's very valid here.

Opta tell us no side have scored fewer goals than the Blues (5) over the last eight Premier League games, but they do come up against a Fulham side which have conceded 27 times - only six teams have shipped more in the Premier League.

Indeed, 13 of Fulham's 18 Premier League games this season have seen both sides scoring, the highest proportion of any side.

BTTS to score at Craven Cottage is 4/6 - or 60% - and when combining Chelsea's ratio (8/17) with Fulham's, we see a combined total of 21/35 - or 60%. It has also landed in seven of Fulham's nine home games. I am happy to include BTTS in any Bet Builder options.

Added Bet Builder selections

Fulham are 12/5 to win in 90 minutes, but given my confidence in BTTS, if you want to back the hosts you may as well include the double to bump the hosts up to 4/1. After all, five of their eight wins have come when conceding.

Aleksandar Mitrovic's absence taunts me, though. The Serbian is suspended due to his fifth yellow of the season, and Fulham have lost all three league matches this season without him (v Man City, Man Utd & West Ham).

The alarm bells are ringing loud enough for me to sway from backing Fulham taking all three points, but I still want to oppose Chelsea. The 1-1 final score is 5/1 and tempting.

Both sides are averaging 5.1 corners both for AND against too in the Premier League - so we could add over 9.5 match corners, but I bet bold when I bet and follow the trends. Let us add over 4.5 corners for each side and take our Bet Builder to 13/2.

Fouls are the new Yellow Cards

Just finally, let's enjoy the game with a fun extra Bet Builder. Someone said to me the other day that "fouls are the new yellow cards" and it's hard to disagree when watching the match with some added fun.

Let us simply take the top three players for either side who are committing the most number of fouls per 90 this season, and back them each to commit 2+ fouls.

Kai Havertz (2.2), Conor Gallagher (2.1) and Kenny Tete (1.8).

*If Gallagher doesn't start, swap in Azpilicueta.