Fulham and Brentford will face off in one of the Premier League week ten encounters fixed for early October.
It is still early days in the 2024-25 season, so several teams could still be finding their feet.
The two teams have been regulars around the midtable, and they might be looking to finish at a level higher than that at the end of the campaign.
Fulham have already racked up some wins in the Premier League this season. As of the time of writing, the Cottagers have beaten Newcastle United and Leicester City, while their only defeat was against Manchester United on the opening weekend of the season.
As for Brentford, they have been solid in their little way. They have lost to Tottenham, Manchester City, and Liverpool, while they have won clashes with Southampton and Crystal Palace.
In the transfer market, the Cottagers lost influential Portuguese midfielder João Palhinha, one of the best defensive midfielders, to Bayern Munich, Tosin Adarabioyo also left the club as a free agent after the expiration of his contract, while a loyal servant of the club – Bobby De Cordova-Reid – moved on to newly promoted Premier League side Leicester City. Midfielder Tyrese Francois also left London for League One club Wigan.
Before the transfer window came to a close, Fulham raided a few London clubs to make some signings. Reiss Nelson and Emile Smith-Rowe arrived from Arsenal, Joachim Andersen from Palace, and Ryan Sessegnon returned to the club on a free transfer from Tottenham. Jorge Cuenca and Sander Berge arrived from Villarreal and Burnley respectively.
On the other hand, Brentford missed the presence of talisman Ivan Toney for the first half of the 2023/24 season. Toney, who is undoubtedly a legend of the club, eventually moved to Saudi Arabia.
However, Yoane Wissa and Cameroonian international Bryan Mbeumo – who returned 12 PL goals and nine PL goals, respectively have been coming up with the goods.
A recent injury to Wissa has slowed things down in the attack against the Bees, and they might suffer from it in the coming games when Mbeumo is off-form or overworked.
In the transfer market, Brentford signed Igor Thiago, a centre-forward from Club Brugge, for €33.00m. Sepp van den Berg came in from Liverpool alongside Fabio Carlvalho for a combined fee of €47.00m.
In addition, winger Gustavo Nunes arrived from Gremio in Brazil. In terms of the exits, apart from Toney, David Raya, one of the best goalkeepers in the world, was sold to Arsenal permanently for €31.90m, while Shandon Baptiste left for Luton on a free transfer, Frank Onyeka left for Germany on loan and a couple of others.
Fulham have been expansive with their football right from the start of the season and have just been unlucky in some games not to have won.
The Cottagers will be keen to make their home ground a fortress. Meanwhile, Brentford, who are generally bad travellers, will be hoping to put an end to that form and get a good result in London once again.
Fulham and Brentford have played 19 Games since 2010. Among them, Fulham won 6 games, Brentford won 9 and drew 4. It is still slightly close between the two teams and one should expect another exciting fixture between the two teams.
Match tickets
The epic match at Craven Cottage in Fulham kicks off on Monday, 4th of November 2024 at 21:00 GMT.
The 25,700-capacity stadium will host this clash between two teams aiming to make a strong run in the early stages of the season.
Getting Fulham vs Brentford tickets could take a lot of work given the standard of this game. Hence, you are advised to search ticket reselling sites should they be expectedly sold out on each club’s channels.
Team news
Line-ups
As of the time of writing, Carlos Vinicius remains the only injured player in Fulham’s ranks. That said, the Cottagers should start with almost the same team that started most of the games so far this season.
Pereira, who has been given a more central role since the arrival of Smith Rowe from Arsenal, should sit alongside Lukic to orchestrate things in the middle of the park.
Iwobi and Traore – who have made solid starts to the season – have roles to play in this particular encounter, and barring any injuries, Raul Jimenez should lead the line for the Cottagers.
Fulham: Leno, Robinson, Bassey, Andersen, Tete; Lukic, Iwobi, Pereira, Traore, Smith Rowe; Jimenez.
Thomas Frank and Brentford sold Toney in the summer, but they found themselves in a tight position due to the absence of Wissa due to injury.
The Congolese forward might not be available for this trip, and Mbeumo will need help in attack to get the Bees going in London.
Flekken should remain in goal, Pinnock at the heart of the backline alongside Collins, while Damsgaard will be working in midfield and Mbeumo to lead the attack for them on a ground they won 3-0 last season. Josh Dasilva and Rico Henry are long-term absentees for the Bees.
Brentford: Flekken; Collins, Lewis-Potter, Pinnock, Sepp van den Berg, Ajer; Yarmolyuk, Janelt, Damsgaard; Mbeumo, Carvalho.
Prediction
Fulham will look to press heavily from the front and push their opponents back with sharply direct football when the ball is won.
Meanwhile, Brentford adopt a high-intensity style of play. Off the ball, they press aggressively from the front, and when they win back the ball, they move it up the pitch quickly with crisp and neat interchanges.
We expect a hotly contested encounter, with the Cottagers winning this because of their strong home form.
Fulham 2-1 Brentford
