Match Preview
Fulham vrs Wolverhampton Wanderers
Premier League Match Day 32 at Craven Cottage
Friday 9th April 2021 KO: 20:00
Jonathan Moss (West Yorkshire)
Live on BT Sports
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Two teams in disappointing form will lock horns at Craven Cottage on Friday evening as relegation-threatened Fulham host Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League.
Fulham are currently 18th in the table, three points behind 17th-placed Newcastle United, while Wolves occupy 14th position, nine points clear of the bottom three heading into the next set of fixtures.
A run of just two defeats from 10 matches between January 27 and March 7 saw Fulham move to within the brink of escaping the bottom three, but the Cottagers are now on a worrying run of form, losing four of their last five matches in England's top flight.
Indeed, since beating Liverpool at Anfield towards the start of March, Scott Parker's side have lost three straight matches to Manchester City, Leeds United and Aston Villa.
Fulham actually took the lead away to Villa on Sunday, with Aleksandar Mitrovic scoring just past the hour, but the strugglers conceded three times in the final 12 matches to suffer a damaging defeat.
The Cottagers are currently 18th in the table, three points behind 17th-placed Newcastle, who have a game in hand, meaning that the London club have plenty of work to do if they are to stay in the top flight.
Parker's side have the worst home record in the Premier League this season, picking up just 10 points from 16 matches at Craven Cottage, while they have lost their last two matches against Wolves, including a 1-0 defeat in the reverse fixture at Molineux back in October.
There is no getting away from the fact that it has been a disappointing season for Wolves, who are currently 14th in the table, nine points clear of the relegation zone with eight games left.
Nuno Espirito Santo's side have finished seventh in the last two Premier League seasons but will not challenge for a possible European spot this term unless something incredible happens over the next few weeks.
The 2017-18 Championship winners are on a run of five matches without a victory in the league, including defeats in three of their last four games.
Wolves picked up a point against Aston Villa in their last away fixture on March 6 but have lost their last two at Molineux to Liverpool and West Ham United; Nuno's side threatened to snatch a point against the Hammers on Monday after falling 3-0 behind but were unable to score a third as they suffered a 3-2 defeat.
The last Premier League meeting between these two sides at Craven Cottage came in December 2018, when Romain Saiss cancelled out a Ryan Sessegnon effort as it finished 1-1 in the capital.
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Fulham have never lost a home Premier League match against Wolves in five previous meetings (W2 D3). Their last home top-flight defeat to Wolves was in August 1967.
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Wolves have won eight of their last 11 league matches against Fulham (D2 L1), with their only defeat in this run a 2-0 loss in the Championship in February 2018.
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After a run of seven straight home league wins in games played on Friday, Fulham lost their last such match 1-2 against Leeds last month.
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Fulham have lost each of their last three Premier League games, having lost just two of their previous 10 in the competition (W3 D5). The Whites last lost four consecutive Premier League games within a season back at the start of this campaign, losing their opening four games, while the fourth defeat in that run came against Wolves.
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Fulham have scored with just 24 of their 362 shots in the Premier League this season, giving them a league-low conversion rate of 6.6%. The last team to have such a low conversion rate across a full season and avoid relegation was Wigan in 2008-09 (5.8%).
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There are two players to have had as many as 25 shots without finding the net so far in the Premier League this season - Wolves' Adama Traoré (26) and Fulham's André-Frank Zambo Anguissa (25).
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After losing their first three Friday games in the Premier League, Wolves are unbeaten in their last four on that weekday (W3 D1), keeping a clean sheet in each of the last three.
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Wolves have lost three of their last five Premier League games in London (W1 D1), having been unbeaten in their previous 10 in the capital since winning promotion in 2018 (W5 D5).
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Wolves are winless in five Premier League games (D2 L3), and are looking to avoid suffering three consecutive Premier League defeats for the first time since November 2018.
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Wolves' Fábio Silva has lost all three Premier League games in which he's scored - no player has a worse 100% loss record in games they've found the net in the competition's history.