Fulham and Crystal Palace, two teams in contrasting form, meet in a London derby in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.
Fulham have their mojo back after sealing back-to-back Premier League wins over Hull and Coventry. That has relieved the pressure slightly on new boss Alvaro Arbeloa after a sticky start.
The Cottagers are now looking up and will be targeting a hat-trick of wins when Palace make the short hop across the capital for this fourth round affair. Fulham certainly owe the Eagles one, after they lost 3-2 in a topsy-turvy league clash at home in early September.
As for Palace, they are in a real rut and are winless in four. That run includes a horror show away at fierce rivals Brighton – who hammered them 5-0 – and a recent 2-0 setback at home to Newcastle last time out.
Those results have piled the pressure on manager Pierre Sage, who like Arbeloa was only appointed in the summer. The Frenchman’s record is nothing to shout about, with just four wins from his 12 games in charge – and just two of those in the Premier League.
Reports on Tuesday suggest that Palace chair Steve Parish has decided not to swing the axe just yet and that Sage has at least the meeting with Fulham and then Saturday’s huge game away at Tottenham Hotspur. The latter game could well decide Sage’s future with defeat against one of their big London rivals almost certain to spell the end for the 47-year-old.
Should a vacancy arise at Selhurst Park, the likes of Thomas Frank and Sean Dyche are thought to feature high on Palace’s shortlist for potential replacements. Each man has been out of management since leaving Tottenham and Nottingham Forest respectively earlier in the calendar year.
Both managers could well shuffle their packs for this cup tie, with important league matters on the horizon.
Fulham may recall the likes of Emile Smith Rowe and Rodrigo Muniz whilst Palace may give Ben Chilwell a rare start. The former England man scored the winner against Fulham in the aforementioned league game in September.
Looking ahead to Wednesday’s tussle, Arbeloa said: “When you are not in your best moment, every game is an opportunity, and I think they will come here thinking about a good opportunity to win a game, to win a cup game, to be in the next round.
“So, for them, it’s a good opportunity, and of course they will come with desire, with the same desire like us, but we are thinking in ourselves and what we have to do against a very good team that obviously has very good players.
“We will see tomorrow, but it’s another London derby, and maybe a revenge for us because we want to win the game that we lost some weeks ago. We are thinking that tomorrow is going to be difficult.”
