Blackburn Rovers V Fulham

Blackburn Rovers V Fulham

Kick-Off: Saturday, 18th September – 15:00 GMT
Venue: Ewood Park

Blackburn Rovers

League Position: 15th
League Form: DLLW

Blackburn fans believe the club should be taken significant strides forward by now, although gone are the days when Rovers were up their challenging for the title and European places. In fairness to Sam Allardyce, he inherited an average bunch of players and has had a shoestring budget during his two years in charge of the Lancashire club, but has somehow managed to keep this team in the division. In fact, Rovers surpassed all expectations last term when nearly finishing inside the top ten, and because of this fans are demanding unrealistic goals such as European football and what not. We believe it’s time they woke up and smelt the Coffee as ‘Big Sam’ is doing a tremendous job and deserves all the plaudits he receives from pundits and fellow managers.

You will struggle to find a manager with more dogged determination and nous on how to avoid the relegation that Sam Allardyce. If a club finds themselves starring down the barrel of relegation then more times than not Allardyce’s name was mentioned at one time or another as the man to save the day. That was how he got the Blackburn job in the first place, with the club on its knees and needing a hero. ‘Big Sam’ was that hero and deserves a great deal more respect than he currently receives, especially from the Blackburn fans.

On Saturday, Allardyce will lead his troops into battle once more although on this rare occasion his men are actually fancied to reign supreme on the battlefield. The battle ground is Ewood Park in Lancashire, where Blackburn lost just three league games throughout the whole of last season and somehow forced the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool into surrendering valuable points, while their famous scalp that term was their 2-1 win over Arsenal. The Gunners did manage to reverse that defeat a few weeks ago at Ewood Park, although not without a typical Blackburn fight, and even though Rovers have begun the new season with a whimper; winning just one of their opening four encounters, no-one has really yet to batter Blackburn into submission, with their two defeats so far both coming by slender one goal margins against Arsenal and away at Birmingham, who rarely lose at home anyhow.

Despite our charming assessment of our old pal Sam Allardyce, the former Bolton and Newcastle manager will be more than aware of the importance of winning Saturday’s home affair with Fulham. Not only will the vast majority of Blackburn’s points this season probably come at home but Fulham are one of the worst away outfits the Premier League has ever had, so in many ways this fixtures is priceless as they won’t have many easier opportunities to rack up three value set of points than on Saturday, especially now that the wind is under their sails following a hard-fought draw away at mega-spending Man City.

Fulham

League Position: 5th
League Form: WDDD

Fulham fans’ wait for their first Premier League win of the season finally came to an end last Saturday in the team’s first game of the month, although it wasn’t by any means convincing while it also came with a hefty price. The win does, however, lift the Cottagers up into fifth place and has put some healthy breathing space between them and the lower reaches of the table which, considering they’re now without their star man for a considerable period, is ideal.

As summer recruit Moussa Dembele was playing the starring role in a valiant Fulham fightback at the Cottage last Saturday, Bobby Zamora was the unfortunate soul to be shot down while in action. With Fulham trailing by a Van Damme goal early on, the Cottagers’ Saturday afternoon quickly went from bad to simply catastrophic, as a firm but reckless challenge by Karl Henry on Bobby Zamora, arguably the club’s most influential player last season and a player which had he been a few years younger would have almost certainly been snapped up by a bigger club elsewhere, resulted in the England international suffering both a broken leg and ligament damage leaving Fulham’s most prized asset sidelined until at least the new year.

Away from the Bobby Zamora incident, Moussa Dembele did at least spare some Fulham blushes with his first pair of goals for the club. His first came via a deflection, but they all count, while his second, the game’s winning goal, came with just minutes left to play when his well-driven free-kick eluded everyone and trickled into the bottom corner of Wolves’ net sparking mad celebrations in the Fulham terraces. While many will argue that Zamora is irreplaceable, Dembele did at least go some way to filling Zamora’s rather large void.

So, Mark Hughes must do without Bobby Zamora for several months, this coming immediately after he signed a new four-year deal which made him the highest earner on Fulham’s books. However, on the positive side of things Damien Duff could feature on Saturday providing he recovers from a troublesome calf injury, while full-back Carles Salcido may also make his bow on Saturday, hopefully in place of John Pantsil who has been pants for Fulham this season, woeful against Wolves on Saturday and the player at fault for Wolves’ early goal.

Match Prediction: Blackburn Rovers to WIN – 2.10 PaddyPower

The Cottagers needed a slice of good fortune to overhaul Wolves last weekend, with Dembele’s sliced effort restoring parity before a well-hit free-kick somehow found the bottom corner of the Wolves goal with just minutes remaining. Fulham weren’t pretty and they weren’t very effective either, and without their focal point up front in Bobby Zamora – and he will be sorely missed as the majority of Fulham’s forward play went directly through him – Mark Hughes will struggle to squirm goals out of Fulham.

Blackburn are typically strong at home and just as typically poor on the road, so Saturday’s fixtures is so crucial to their chances of avoiding the drop for yet another season with yet another mediocre side. Ewood Park has been treated to two home games thus far, with one resulting in a narrow but precious win over Everton while the other seen Rovers narrowly beaten by Arsenal. Blackburn looked good enough in both encounters to suggest they have what it takes to overhaul Fulham in Lancashire on Saturday, so we’ve plumped for ‘Big Sam’s’ group of misfits and ugly Diouf’s.

Soccer-Betting Value Bet: El-Hadji Diouf First Goalscorer – 11.00 SkyBet

Match Odds:

Blackburn Rovers – 2.10 PaddyPower
Draw – 3.40 SkyBet
Fulham – 4.00 Bet365

Blackburn Rovers V Fulham

Sunday, 17^th January – 15:00 GMT

Blackburn Rovers

League Position: 13th

Recent Form: LLDDL

No one will need to tell Sam Allardyce just how important getting a win in this game is as his Blackburn side play host to one of the leagues poorest travellers in Fulham. Blackburn’s mediocre season is only half-decent because of their strong form at home and so with that they’ll be fancied by a lot of punters to do the business in this home outing as they seek out their sixth win of the campaign, what would be their fifth at Ewood Park.

Blackburn would give Fulham a serious run for their money in terms of who has the worst away record this season and, in actual fact, Rovers would win that contest with just five points collected in ten away outings thus far. That’s a dreadful return for your money but it means their home form will be the only thing that might just keep them in the top flight for another season. Four of their five victories have come at home while their home points accumulation of 16 is far better than that of five away from Ewood Park.

For one reason or another, and Blackburn aren’t the only ones, Rovers just can’t replicate their strong home displays into their away games. Blackburn are a far more reliable outfit at Ewood Park, losing just twice there all season, plus; they score more and they don’t concede anywhere near the amount of goals they do on the road. Paul Robinson, who hasn’t had the best of spells recently, has conceded 11 at home this season, which will look like colossal form compared to the 28 times he has had to pick the ball out from his own net away from Ewood Park. The former England No.1 has kept three clean sheets on home soil this season, while only Burnley, Sunderland & Tottenham have put more than one goal past home at Ewood Park this season, whereas just about the entire world and his missus has scored a hat-trick past him away from home.

However, the problem for ‘Big Sam’ now is that Rovers haven’t even managed a win at Ewood Park for over a month now and that sort of poor form can only be a hindrance with the players and their confidence levels. Their last success at home came by the form of a 3-1 win over bottom side Portsmouth, five games ago. Rovers have since drawn three and lost one, but have scored just twice in this baron home run, failing to score in three of the four. Their blunt forwards need to sharpen up their boots as Fulham conceded three in their last away outing at Stoke City so surely Blackburn’s lethargic strikers have half-a-chance of finding the net this Saturday… at least once anyway.

Fulham

League Position: 9th

Recent Form: DWDLL

Fulham were chugging along at a decent rate of knots after going on a six match run without suffering a single defeat, but two defeats in quick succession may have knocked the Christmas stuffing out of the Cottagers and it will be fascinating to see how they respond in their second fixture of the new year away at Blackburn Rovers. Ewood Park hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for Fulham in the past, just one win in their last six visits, and with Fulham without an away win since august, their poor run at Ewood Park looks set to continue.

Although Fulham were at home in the FA Cup against Swindon Town, winning 1-0, that was a brisk visit to Craven Cottage as Fulham’s last two league fixtures have both been away from home, with this trip to Blackburn set to be their third in a row. With this, Fulham’s form has dropped with two successive defeats to Chelsea (2-1) & Stoke City (3-2). They were somewhat unlucky to lose at Stamford Bridge after creating more than enough chances to take at least a point off Chelsea but they were out-of-sorts away at Stoke, going 3-0 down before half-time. Fulham didn’t start at all well in that fixture and despite a late show, scoring two late goals, Fulham still came away empty handed and those two defeats might have knocked their confidence after an impressive run of form beforehand– going unbeaten in six league games.  

Roy Hodgeson will now need to regroup his troops ahead of what will be a tough game but one that is certainly winnable, at least a game they could take a point from. However, Fulham, ever since their maiden Premiership season, have had away issues in terms of winning games and this homesickness syndrome they appear to of had for years now is creeping up on them once again this season. In ten away games thus far, Fulham have managed just the one win, although even that rare away delight came way back in August on the opening day of the season against bottom of the league Portsmouth. They have since gone nine away outings without a win and those back-to-back away defeats will have only hindered their already faltering away self-esteem.

Fulham are a completely different team when they’re away from their fortress of Craven Cottage. They go into their shell and don’t attack sides in the same manner nor vigour. Whether this is because Hodgeson prefers to solidify his team more when Fulham go on their travels we don’t know but it’s not helping their cause, at all. Fulham have, though, scored in their last three away encounters, it’s just their defence hasn’t been its usual buoyant self of late. Conceding three goals at Stoke is a big negative for us and it should be for all punters out there as Stoke aren’t particularly well known for their attacking prowess, and while that result may not have knocked the stuffing out of them… it certainly caught us with a firm uppercut.

Head-to-Head (Last 10):

Blackburn Rovers W: 4 Fulham W: 3 Draws: 3

•  Fulham beat Blackburn earlier in the season 3-0 back at Craven Cottage, with goals from Erik Nevland and a brace from Clint Dempsey. 

•  Fulham’s 3-0 victory back in November was their first in the league against Blackburn in over four years after previously going six matches without a win over Rovers. 

•  Blackburn haven’t lost a home fixture with Fulham since May, 2005 when they lost 3-1.  

•  Blackburn are unbeaten in four home games against Fulham, winning three and drawing one. 

• Blackburn completed a league double over Fulham last season with wins at both Ewood Park (1-0) & Craven Cottage (1-2) but a win for Fulham would give them their first league double over Blackburn ever in the Premiership.

Match Verdict: Blackburn Rovers to WIN – 2.38 Coral

Blackburn are far stronger at home, much like Fulham, but are unable to pick up too many points when on their travels which means their home form takes on even more importance. A game with Fulham is one Sam Allardyce will pinpoint as a fixture Blackburn could win and have to win if they are to accumulate enough points at Ewood Park to get them out of jail for their poor away showings. We aren’t quite sure what to expect from Fulham after two away defeats on the spin whereas Blackburn have been consistent enough at home to make us think they are good for all three points in this encounter.

Match Odds:

Blackburn Rovers – 2.38 Coral

Draw – 3.25 Boylesports

Fulham – 3.40 SkyBet

SoccerBetting Value Tip: Blackburn Rovers to WIN to NIL – 3.75 PaddyPower