Fulham v Sunderland Preview

Fulham's game against Arsenal was basically their one season condensed into one game. Prolific in attack, leaky at the back and prone to conceding goals when in a winning position. Sunderland's problems are exactly the opposite. More solid at the back but poorly lacking in attack, Sunderland rarely gets the opportunity to lose a lead in game as they rarely take get one except for in the previous game.

taken from: eurosport.yahoo.com

That being said, Sunderland's attack looked very much improved in the last game against Everton. The goal came from only Sunderland's second goal scorer in the league, Adam Johnson and it will be a relief to O'Neill that they have broken their reliance on Steven Fletcher. Indeed, they created enough decent chances to settle the game at Everton by half time. The key creator that Sunderland should center their game around will be Sessegnon though, as he has both pace and trickery coupled with vision that can create chances for his team. How he manipulates the space that the Fulham full backs will leave when attacking will be crucial to Sunderland's chances. Sunderland has one other way to win the game: set pieces. In Larsson, they have one of the best players to deliver a dead ball and in Fletcher they have one of the deadliest predators in the box. That said, Feltcher has to face a late fitness test before the game and his absence could hurt the team a lot. One decision of O'Neill puzzles me. His unwillingness to play Vaughan from the start is baffling as the midfielder has proven from his time at Blackpool that he is able to make runs into the box to score, something that Fulham seems susceptible to. If Cattermole does not pass his fitness test, Sunderland's fans should hope for Vaughan to start instead.

Fulham's front two of Bryan Ruiz and Dimitar Berbatov have been in red hot form this season, with the latter notching up five goals and the former getting 5 assists. They also have a surplus of wingers, with Petric, Kacaniklic, Duff and Dejagan all capable of playing there and performing well. I especially like the look of Kacaniklic and at the age of 21, he can very well be the next big thing out of Sweden. They will fancy a run at Craig Gardner and Danny Rose, and I expect them to get the upper hand in that battle. It is in defence where the problems come in. On paper, the trio of Hangeland, Hughes and Schwarzer would look very formiable in past years. UNfortunately, age seems to have caught up with them all this season and they shade off the previous solid performances they used to produce week in week out. This situation will be worsened by the probable unavailability of Diarra, whose defensive capabilities impressed me against Everton as he is a player that is willing to roll up his sleeves and get dirty, someone that Fulham will need to protect their defence.

Predictions:
Fulham should take this game comfortably. Sunderland's emphasis on attacking more might actually come back to haunt them in this game as they looks set to be torn apart by Fulham. Berbatov at 13/2 to score two goals or more looks very tempting and I will also be having a flutter on him scoring first and in the first 20 minutes.