Fulham play host to Blackburn Rovers on Saturday afternoon with the opportunity to strengthen their position at the top of the Championship standings.
While the Cottagers hold a commanding lead over third spot and lower, fourth-placed Blackburn can move to within 10 points of their hosts with victory in West London.
Match preview
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Fulham have gone four Championship matches without producing a convincing performance, their last outing seeing them overcome Cardiff City by a 1-0 scoreline in South Wales.
Nevertheless, nine points have been collected from a possible 12, creating a nine-point lead over Bournemouth and at least an 11-point advantage over the teams in the playoff spots.
Marco Silva cannot be overly pleased with the amount of narrow wins that his team have posted of late, although it could be perceived to be a show of character as they bid to earn an immediate return to the Premier League.
Aleksandar Mitrovic continued his record-breaking season with the only goal against the Bluebirds, taking his Championship tally for the campaign to 34 strikes.
On paper, Saturday's fixture is Fulham's toughest until they face Bournemouth on April 23, but Silva will drill into his team that complacency cannot become a factor if they want a comfortable run-in.
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Blackburn have been disappointing since the turn of the year, posting just three times and 12 points from their 10 fixtures from January 2 onwards.
However, last week's 1-0 triumph over rivals Queens Park Rangers has restored some momentum after a five-match streak without success.
Having played three matches more than Bournemouth, Blackburn should focus their attention on remaining in the playoffs, that advantage currently standing at four points having played one more fixture than the chasing pack.
The ankle injury sustained by Ben Brereton Diaz has hampered their efforts in the final third, but Tony Mowbray would have been delighted to see Reda Khadra net his fourth strike of the campaign versus QPR.
Rovers make the trip to the capital having failed to win any of their last five away fixtures in the Championship.
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Team News
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Antonee Robinson could return to the Fulham starting lineup after missing the game at Cardiff through illness.
Jean Michael Seri is an option if Silva decides to freshen up his midfield, but the remainder of the team could stay the same.
Deyovaisio Zeefuik will return to the Blackburn starting lineup as a replacement for injured right wing-back Ryan Nyambe.
Ryan Giles is an option in the final third if Mowbray opts for a more defensive-minded team, but Brereton Diaz remains out through injury.
John Buckley and Lewis Travis are both one yellow card away from a two-match suspension.
Fulham possible starting lineup:
Rodak; Williams, Adarabioyo, Ream, Robinson; Reed, Chalobah; Wilson, Carvalho, Decordova-Reid; Mitrovic
Blackburn Rovers possible starting lineup:
Kaminski; Lenihan, Van Hecke, Wharton; Zeefuik, Travis, Johnson, Pickering; Gallagher, Dolan, Khadra
We say: Fulham 2-0 Blackburn Rovers
Having ended their winless streak last time out, Blackburn will be confident of pushing Fulham at Craven Cottage. Nevertheless, we cannot back against the league leaders right now, even if the goals have started to dry up. Taking every into consideration, we are backing a 2-0 victory for the hosts.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Fulham win with a probability of 69.1%. A draw had a probability of 19.8% and a win for Blackburn Rovers had a probability of 11.13%.
The most likely scoreline for a Fulham win was 1-0 with a probability of 14.15%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (14.11%) and 3-0 (9.39%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (9.21%), while for a Blackburn Rovers win it was 0-1 (4.62%). The actual scoreline of 2-0 was predicted with a 14.1% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted a 2-0 win for Fulham in this match and our data analysis correctly predicted the win for Fulham.
