Fulham will be looking for their first home win of the season when they host Luton Town on Saturday. The furious team of Marco Silva was humbled 5-1 by champion Manchester City two weekends ago. The Hatters’ losing skid continued with a 2-1 loss to West Ham United at home.
Preview (Fulham vs. Luton Town)
After Julian Alvarez’s goal, Tim Ream had originally pulled the visitors even. Erling Haaland’s second-half hat-trick condemned Fulham to a humiliating loss. It gave them just one victory out of their first four Premier League games. Prior to the international break, the Cottagers held a respectable 13th-place position. As a result of their humiliating loss to Man City, the hosts of this weekend’s match are one of just two teams to have allowed at least 10 goals in the current Premier League season, the other being the bottom-dwelling Burnley (11).
When Luton invited West Ham to their modest surroundings, they wanted to put the road defeats against Chelsea and Brighton & Hove Albion behind them. However, the Europa Conference League champions effectively put a stop to the Hatters’ celebrations by scoring goals through Jarrod Bowen and Kurt Zouma in each half. Mads Andersen’s header provided a glimmer of hope in extra time.
One of just two Premier League teams without a point this year is Luton. They are currently in 19th place. Rob Edwards’ team did advance in the EFL Cup at the end of August. They defeated Gillingham 3-2 to earn a match against Exeter City later this month. However, Luton’s overall away record now reads 28 games without a win since defeating Aston Villa 32 years ago. A dismal head-to-head record against Fulham since winning 3-1 in a second-division fixture in 1998 and a 7-0 thrashing under Nathan Jones on their most recent visit to Craven Cottage in May 2022 make for depressing reading for this weekend’s visitors.
Team News
It was never expected that late addition Alex Iwobi would be eligible to make his Fulham debut against Man City. Regardless, the former Everton and Arsenal star has been nursing a thigh problem. He only recently got back into training, so it’s unclear if he’ll be allowed to make his debut here. If Iwobi were to make a comeback, it would bolster a midfield that had already lost Tom Cairney to injury after only 16 minutes at the Etihad. Due to a knee injury, the captain’s participation in this game is uncertain.
However, the Cottagers manager may welcome Joao Palhinha returning to the fold with wide arms, after the Portuguese midfielder sat out the Man City loss after his dream move to Bayern Munich fell through. Silva may very well be down to the bare bones in the center of the park. On September 1, West Ham and Luton squared off under the bright lights of Kenilworth Road. The powers that be were still conducting transfer business up until the deadline and were successful in luring Arsenal outcast Albert Sambi Lokonga, who was present to watch the Hammers win, to a loan deal.
The three confirmed absentees for the visitors are Daniel Potts (ankle), Jordan Clark (ankle), and Gabriel Osho (knee). The visitors were also without captain Tom Lockyer last time out because of a quadriceps problem, but the 28-year-old has had plenty of time to recover after missing Wales’ matches with South Korea and Latvia. However, Luton’s own rearguard record is only slightly better, and Silva’s team should have benefited greatly from the international break, so we can only imagine the Cottagers correcting their recent errors with a much-needed maximum.
Fulham 3 – 1 Luton Town
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