Chelsea travel to Craven Cottage for a west London derby against Fulham in the Premier League on Sunday, looking to get back to winning ways.
The Blues suffered a 2-1 home defeat to Legia Warsaw in the Conference League on Thursday, in a result which saw their players booed off the pitch despite their progression to the semi-finals of the European competition.
The second leg loss to Legia Warsaw followed Premier League draws against Ipswich Town and Bretford, with Chelsea having now won just one of their last four games across all competitions under Enzo Maresca.
Next up is an away clash against Fulham and Chelsea will be desperate to clinch bragging rights against their west London rivals and boost their hopes of Champions League qualification for the 2025-26 campaign.
Chelsea have benefited from an injury boost ahead of the game at Fulham with Maresca confirming that Romeo Lavia is in contention to feature.
Get personalised updates on Chelsea every day
Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we’ll send you so we can get football news tailored to you.
The Belgian midfielder has missed Chelsea’s last three Premier League games with a thigh problem.
‘Romeo is back,’ Chelsea head coach Maresca said in his pre-match press conference.
‘He is training with us and can be available for Sunday’s game. With him, we are going to try the same thing we are trying with Reece (James).
‘I would like to play Reece every three days, but we are trying to manage him to help him. We will try to do exactly the same thing with Romeo because, for us, he is an important player.’
Several players were rested for the match against Legia Warsaw last time out and look set to make their respective returns to the Chelsea XI.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
‘We rested Enzo (Fernandez), Moi (Caicedo), Levi (Colwill), Noni (Madueke), Pedro (Neto),’ Maresca added. ‘We rested many players.’
‘We are, for sure, not happy about the Conference League result, but at the same time, we try to manage a little bit and rotate players.’
Chelsea will be without Wesley Fofana, Omari Kellyman and Marc Guiu for the game against Fulham – who are all ruled out with injury.
Mykhailo Mudryk, meanwhile, remains suspended and will also play no part in this weekend’s west London derby.
Fulham are hoping to bounce back from their 1-0 defeat to AFC Bournemouth against Chelsea on Sunday.
Marco Silva’s side have Reiss Nelson ruled out with injury and it remains to be seen if Harry Wilson will be fit to make his return or not.
Predicted Chelsea XI to face Fulham
Sanchez, Cucurella, Colwill, Tosin, James, Caicedo, Fernandez, Madueke, Palmer, Neto, Jackson
Where to watch Fulham vs Chelsea? Kick-off time and TV channel
Fulham vs Chelsea kicks off at 2pm BST on Sunday, April 20.
The west London derby will not be shown on TV in the United Kingdom. Sky Sports Premier League is showing Ipswich vs Arsenal instead, which gets underway at the exact same time.