Are Fulham there for the taking for AFCB?

A quick assessment of Fulham might not give Eddie Howe too many concerns. While they are already relegated, Fulham have managed to get their first win under Scott Parker at home to Everton and in that match they managed their third clean sheet of the season.

AFCB managed a 0-3 win against Fulham earlier in
the season - two goals from Wilson and one from David Brooks

If Fulham's home form has added a glimmer of light to their fans the away form has not given their fans any pleasure having not won a match in 2019 on the road. Fulham did get a point away at Brighton last September and a draw with Newcastle in December, but it has usually been a journey full of defeats. On goal form, Fulham are ahead of Huddersfield, West Ham, Cardiff and Newcastle in their last six away games, but if they are scoring a goal in away matches they are usually conceding three or four as well.

If we put that against AFCB's home form in the last six matches, AFCB come out as the 10th best team in the league, scoring 10 and conceding seven goals. It looks like being a tall task for Fulham to get something from the game with Bournemouth.

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While Bournemouth need to be on the look out for players that could do better in a stronger team, it will be of interest to see how well Ryan Sessegnon does in this match, if selected. He has managed two goals and six assists in a struggling Fulham side, but could be snapped up by another Premier League team this summer. Tom Cairney has also been a key player for the London team despite only managing one assist and one goal. Ryan Babel got most of the praise for Fulham's win against Everton and Bournemouth will be aware of his talent, while Mitrovich can always find a goal and has done magnificently well to reach 10 goals this season for Fulham.

While AFCB will be favourites to win the match, we can perhaps see a possibility of Fulham scoring so I don't see this as a walkover, despite Bournemouth's morale boosting 0-5 win last time out at Brighton.

Fulham Away Form
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AFCB Home Form
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Score predictions
Send in your score predictions for AFCB v Fulham to @CherryChimes. We will pick a winner from the correct entries to win a Cherry Chimes' T-shirt.

Fulham are pleasing on the eye but have no defence

Having spend around £100m in the summer, I though that Fulham would be challenging around the middle of the Premier League table this season rather than sitting in the bottom three. Slavisa  Jakanovic witnessed a horror show at Cardiff last week and Fulham have now conceded 14 goals in their last three games and 25 in nine games!

 6 March 2015 - what a night!

Having had one win in their season so far and just one point from their last five games, I think we can say that Fulham are struggling at the moment. If the prospect of Bournemouth doesn't frighten their players then the fixture after that against Man City will.

Remember last time at Craven Cottage?

 
I think we had a good time!

There is some positive news for the Cottagers in that Ryan Sessegnon is the first Premier League player born in the year 2000 to score in this league. But when it comes in a 4-2 away defeat to relegation rivals Cardiff City, there is little to smile about. If Swansea push their full back up against Bournemouth they will be cruelly exposed. We Have not seen much of Jermain Defoe yet, but this could be his kind of game for a substitute appearance if Bournemouth can get ahead early.

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Mitrovic and Schurrle will keep Bournemouth honest, but Howe has to be targeting three points in this away game. Midfielder Tom Cairney is also back training for Fulham. Both teams like to attack so this could be a high-scoring game. But it is hard not to see Bournemouth leaving Craven Cottage on 20 points. Even though the Cherries had a blank last time out, they don't go many games without scoring and chances will come at Fulham.

AFCB possible line up.

AFCB Away Form
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Fulham Home Form
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Sadly, there is no Rival Lines this week. I'll try and get one organised with a Fulham blogger when we play them at home.

AFCB press conference

Watford press conference

In other news AFCB's match away at Tottenham on Boxing Day will now be at Wembley.

Competition - free to enter
Send in your score predictions to win a Cherry Chimes T-shirt. We will pick one winner from those who get the correct score between Fulham v AFCB. Answers must be in by midday - Tweet your score to @CherryChimes

Why can't Blackburn convert cup form to the league?

Gary Bowyer must be wondering what he has to do to get his side playing as well in the league as they are doing in the FA Cup. I am sure the Blackburn fans want to go as far as they can in the cup, but sitting in 10th in the league means they have lots of work to do if they are to challenge for a play-off place now. 

Even a gap of 15 points can be cut back and last season Blackburn Rovers put in a good run towards the end of the season, but it would be a major shock if they do that again, especially as their recent away form has not been encouraging. They have not won away in the league since beating Nottingham Forest at the end of October. It's a different story when they play at home and in the FA Cup, but that is not going to get them a play-off spot.

Hopefully Rovers won't bring their cup form to Dean Court.

If Blackburn are to challenge they have to beat the top sides and they had the perfect opportunity to start that in midweek when they met Norwich City, but they lost the game. AFCB will be another game where they will need to try and take points off a team that is above them. They'll need Rudy Gestede and Jordan Rhodes to keep putting away their chances, but it has been the two strikers who have kept Rovers from falling further behind in the race for a top six finish. Some other Blackburn players are going to have to start finding the net if they are to really push on now.

A few injuries to Ben Marshall, Chris Taylor and Corry Evans have not been helpful, but everyone is getting injuries to their team. One player that will be keen to get game time is Tommy Spurr who only made his first start of the season against Blackpool last weekend, but he did not feature against Norwich in mid-week.

The cup run could be taking more out of Rovers than is good for them of course. With Jay Spearing, Tom Cairney and Grant Hanley in their side there is plenty of fight and experience, but succeeding in cup and league campaigns is going to be very demanding for them. In some ways the match they face against AFCB will be a good prelude to the Liverpool cup match. Their players will be playing for their shirt in that game so the Cherries should be aware that Rovers are going to be doing everything to improve their away record, because they can't afford to lose any more ground on the top six in the Championship.

It seems that set-pieces have been causing them problems of late and perhaps the Cherries can cause them problems with their corners. But beating Rovers will be a difficult task and AFCB must make the most of home advantage, which they couldn't do against Derby and Huddersfield.

Send in more score predictions for the match and I'll post them up on Cherry Chimes.

No easy ride expected for Cherries at Blackburn

The Cherries played fantastically at Ewood Park last season but will need similar resolve this time if they are to come away with anything. Blackburn are one of the side I believe should be in the top 10 with their quality and perhaps the form they showed against Cardiff indicates that they could do even better. I think a lot of how well Blackburn do will depend on not only Jordan Rhodes but Rude Gestede has started most matches with Rhodes this season.

Blackburn will be another difficult test
that will show whether AFCB are
likely to be top challengers this season or not.

Gary Bowyer has not signed that many players in the summer or at least has not splashed the cash. Alex Baptise was a loan deal from Bolton, Chris Brown also joined on a free transfer from Doncaster. Looking at the signings though they don't look like players who will put Blackburn in the top six, but stable performers is perhaps how I see the squad as a whole and I imagine the club's financial circumstances are starting to dictate how much can be spent now.

On the pitch it appears that Balckburn are going to be hard to beat and in the Championship that is not a bad starting point. Kilgallon and Hanley will make sure that they don't concede that many and Dunn and Tom Cairney are always powerful in midfield. AFCB have to make sure they keep things tight and don't overplay against Blackburn because it only takes Rhodes a second to get the wrong side of defenders and punish them with his quality. Coming away with a point from Ewood Park is never a bad result and if that is what the Cherries get rewarded with this weekend it won't be anything to moan about.

If you had not noticed Kyle Cotter has been busy checking out new possible talent for England's next campaign in the Euros. He has a profile on Calum Chambers who is at Southampton - see Kyle's Cups.

Good luck to Jayden Stockley who has gone on loan to Cambridge Utd until January 2015.