TEAM NEWS
Midfielders Kevin McDonald and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa remain sidelined by injuries.
New Fulham boss Claudio Ranieri says Joe Bryan is available after overcoming a hamstring injury, though the left-back may struggle to play 90 minutes.
Southampton striker Danny Ings is doubtful because of a muscle problem. Saints are hopeful Mohamed Elyounoussi and Mario Lemina will overcome minor injuries, but left-back Ryan Bertrand is suspended.
MOTD COMMENTATOR’S NOTES
@alistairmann01: This weekend one of the game’s managerial characters makes his first appearance in the Premier League since February 2017 – “dilly ding, dilly dong” – and, for the record, you can get odds of 5,000-1 on Claudio Ranieri guiding Fulham to the title!
More realistically, the Cottagers are odds-on to be relegated and it will be games like this which determine their fate. Will the ‘new manager effect’ materialise against another side struggling for form?
Like Fulham, Southampton have won only once this campaign; their three extra draws separate the two teams.
As snow hits the UK this week, it’s a sobering thought that you needed sunblock the last time either of these teams earned a league victory!
VIEW FROM THE DUGOUT
Fulham manager Claudio Ranieri: “Today I said this: restart every time. We can win, lose and restart tomorrow. Forget the past.
“I showed to them some videos from the previous game and I said what is right and what is wrong.
“One thing is to watch, but after we have been on the pitch to repeat the movement and slowly, slowly they get better.
“It’s not possible for everything we do on the pitch to repeat, there will be some mistakes and I hope [after] these mistakes there isn’t a goal.”
Southampton manager Mark Hughes on Charlie Austin’s comments after the last game: “It’s important sometimes that people looking from the outside understand when things go against you and decisions have affected you like they did against Watford.
“It’s right and proper that people see how we feel close to an event that’s concerning everybody.
“Charlie was just saying what he felt from the heart and what he felt as a part of a group of lads that had done their best to try and get maximum points.
“That was where the frustration for him and for us lay, so his reaction didn’t surprise me.”
LAWRO’S PREDICTION
Claudio Ranieri is a bit of a feel-good appointment for the fans, and I am expecting him to have an instant impact at Craven Cottage after replacing Slavisa Jokanovic.
Prediction: 2-1
MATCH FACTS
Head-to-head
- Southampton are unbeaten in their past six league and cup games against Fulham, winning the last three encounters without conceding.
- Fulham have only lost one of their last 14 home league fixtures against Saints, though that came in the most recent top-flight clash on 1 February 2014.
Fulham
- Only two sides have ever accrued fewer points than Fulham’s five from their opening 12 Premier League games: Everton (1994-95) and QPR (2012-13) both had four points at this stage.
- The Cottagers could lose seven successive league matches for the first time since an 11-game losing streak between December 1961 and February 1962.
- Fulham are one of just two teams yet to keep a clean sheet in English league football this season, along with League Two Macclesfield.
- They have gone 16 top-flight matches without a clean sheet and have conceded at least twice in 14 of those fixtures.
- Fulham’s next win will be their 300th in the top flight.
- Claudio Ranieri’s first league games in charge of Chelsea and Leicester both featured six goals; the former drew 3-3 with Manchester United in 2000 while the latter beat Sunderland 4-2 in 2015.
- Twelve of Aleksandar Mitrovic’s 14 shots on target in the Premier League this season came in Fulham’s first six games, with just two in the subsequent six matches.
Southampton
- Saints are winless in their last eight league games, losing four of those matches.
- Mark Hughes has won three of his 20 league games in charge of Southampton (D7, L10).
- Saints have only managed 47 goals in their past 56 league matches.
- They have won just one of their last 10 league games versus newly-promoted sides (D6, L3), with that solitary victory coming against Middlesbrough in May 2017.
- Danny Ings has been directly involved in 63% of his team’s eight Premier League goals this season – scoring four and assisting one. It’s the highest percentage of any player this season.
Source: BBC News
