Chelsea face a short trip to Craven Cottage on Thursday night when they play west London rivals Fulham in the Premier League.
A dire run of form has seen Chelsea win just three of their last 12 games in all competitions, with just one of those coming in the Premier League. The Blues' last outing was a 4-0 defeat to Manchester City in the FA Cup, knocking Graham Potter's side out of the competition in the third round.
Chelsea enter the clash with their local rivals 10th in the Premier League, three points behind Fulham in seventh and 10 points off the top four. The Blues have already made three signings in the January transfer window in an attempt to get their season back on track, the latest arrival being Joao Felix on loan from Atletico Madrid.
READ MORE: Joao Felix's first words on Chelsea transfer as Atletico Madrid loan move confirmed
So, could the Blues get back to winning ways in this west London derby? Let's take a look.
Fulham vs Chelsea score predicted by simulation
To complete this simulation, we used FIFA 23 and updated the squads with the latest injuries and suspensions. Recent form impacts players' ratings in FIFA 23, so the Blues squad was lower-rated than usual heading into this simulation.
We predict that the Cottagers could set up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with their line-up as follows: Leno; Tete, Diop, Ream, Robinson; Reed, Palhinha; Cordova-Reid, Pereira, Willian; Vinicius.
We predict that the Blues could line up in a 4-3-3 formation, with their line-up as follows: Kepa; Azpilicueta, Koulibaly, Silva, Cucurella; Jorginho, Zakaria, Kovacic; Ziyech, Havertz, Mount.
Despite their poor run of recent results, Chelsea looked like a rejuvenated side in the opening stages of the game, with Kai Havertz and Hakim Ziyech causing trouble on the right of the pitch. After 11 minutes, the Blues took a well-deserved lead through Jorginho.
Havertz dropped deep to receive the ball, and when doing so, the German created a hole in the Fulham defence for Jorginho to attack. Havertz flicked the ball into the Italian's path, and with pace not on his side, the midfielder rifled a powerful strike across goal from outside the box, flying past Bernd Leno for the lead.
Mason Mount struck the post with a free-kick in the 20th minute as the Blues looked for a second, but the hosts looked unimaginative in attack without their suspended talisman Aleksandar Mitrovic, a bonus for Chelsea. The pressure kept coming from the Blues, and after 35 minutes it was 2-0 to Potter's side.
Cesar Azpilicueta charged forward down the right, laying the ball off to Havertz on the wing before overlapping the German into the box. The Blues' captain was picked out with a drilled pass by Havertz and cleverly flicked the ball into the feet of Ziyech, and the Moroccan's first-time effort rifled past Leno to double the lead.
Two well-worked goals had the Blues in front, and the hosts had failed to register a single shot by the time Chelsea were 2-0 up. But, with their first attack of the game just before halftime, the Cottagers pulled a goal back through Vinicius.
Former Chelsea winger Willian cut past Azpilicueta on the left before chipping a ball in towards the front post, and Vinicius peeled away from Kalidou Koulibaly to poke the ball past Kepa from close range. The second half began, and all of a sudden it was a different game, with the hosts suffocating Chelsea into their own half.
Bobby De Cordova-Reid and Andreas Pereira both tested the gloves of Kepa as the hosts looked to draw the game level, and they should've done in the 92nd minute when Daniel James broke through on goal. The Welshman latched onto Harry Wilson's through ball before rounding Kepa, but somehow the forward blazed his shot over the bar, and the Blues escaped with all three points.
FIFA 23 predicted score: Fulham 1-2 Chelsea
Here are the full-time match stats:
FIFA 23 predicts that Chelsea could get back to winning ways, overcoming a tough test against Fulham in the simulation. The win was far from simple as the hosts troubled the Chelsea goal on more than one occasion and outscored the Blues on expected goals, showing that Potter's side may need to be at their best defensively on Thursday
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