TEAM NEWS
Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, who has recovered from an ankle injury, could make the bench, as could new signings Lazar Markovic and Havard Nordtveit. Fulham’s Andre Schurrle and Cyrus Christie have overcome injuries but Timothy Fosu-Mensah is ineligible against his parent club.
There are likely to be changed to the Manchester United team with Tuesday’s Champions League tie in mind. Antonio Valencia and Matteo Darmian will be sidelined for a while longer. But Marcos Rojo is back in training.
MOTD COMMENTATOR’S NOTES
Jonathan Pearce: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has certainly restored smiles – and the best of form – to United players who were so down at heel under Jose Mourinho. The return of Mike Phelan has been equally inspired. The fans have their club back.
But PSG in midweek, then Chelsea and Liverpool will be the acid test. If he wins all three, they’d be mad not to give him the job.
Unless Aleksandar Mitrovic is at his best, this looks routine. Fulham have conceded more league goals than anyone in Europe’s 40 leading top divisions!
In the last 15 years, only two of the nine Premier League teams with 17 points or fewer at this stage have escaped relegation.
Fulham is a lovely club. But it’ll take a miracle beyond even the 2008 escape to stay up.
VIEW FROM THE DUGOUT
Fulham manager Claudio Ranieri: “We know where we are, we know it’s very tough and then we need soldiers who have to fight until the end.
“We are ready to fight. I have to motivate them and give my positivity to our players. It’s much better to play at home than away.”
Manchester United caretaker manager Ole Gunnar Solksjaer on potentially moving into the top four this weekend: “That’s one of the goals we’ve set and if we do so we want to stay there and improve on that.
“It’s been fantastic the last two months so consistency now is the key word – we keep on improving, keep on winning games, but in a better way than say the last one, where we held on.
“It was good enough but we shouldn’t just be happy with just good enough, we want to improve in games like this.”
LAWRO’S PREDICTION
I can only see one outcome here – another United win, which would be Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s 10th victory in 11 games as interim boss.
Prediction: 0-2
MATCH FACTS
Head-to-head
- Fulham have won just three Premier League matches against Manchester United, losing 19 times.
- United are unbeaten against Fulham in their past 11 meetings in all competitions (W9, D2).
Fulham
- Fulham have lost four of their last five Premier League games but they have won two of their last three at home.
- Fifteen of their 17 points this season have been earned at Craven Cottage.
- The Cottagers have their worst record after 25 matches of a league season: W4, D5, L16.
- They have kept just two clean sheets in this season’s top flight, half as many as any other team.
- Fulham have lost 22 of their last 23 Premier League meetings against established top-six sides since March 2013, with the only exception being a 2-2 draw at Manchester United five years ago.
- Bottom-of-the-table Huddersfield are the only side to fail to score at Craven Cottage in this season’s Premier League.
- Aleksandar Mitrovic’s 10 goals account for 40% of Fulham’s total in this season’s Premier League – the highest proportion of a team’s goals by any player in the top flight.
Manchester United
- Manchester United have won seven of their past eight matches, the best record of any Premier League side over that spell.
- They have taken 22 out of 24 possible points since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took over and are the only unbeaten club in the Premier League during that time.
- United are looking to win six consecutive away games in all competitions for the first time since May 2009.
- Paul Pogba has been directly involved in 11 goals in eight Premier League appearances under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, scoring six and setting up five.
- Solskjaer scored one goal in his five Manchester United appearances against Fulham in all competitions. That came in a 1-1 Premier League draw at Loftus Road in October 2002.
Source: BBC News
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