Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Chelsea-Fulham Preview - Yahoo! Sports

LONDON (SE) - For Chelsea, it's now Champions League or breast. The Blues try to regroup from their FA Cup exit and when they face Fulham at Craven Cottage enhance their possibilities for a top-four end on Wednesday. Chelsea (17-7-7) are element of a four-way struggle for the last two Champions League spots along with Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Everton. Rafa Benitez's staff are one point behind Arsenal for third, before Tottenham on purpose differential and three points away from Everton with seven fits outstanding. The 2012 European champions were bounced in team play on the place, and their chances of lifting the FA Cup were dashed with a 2-1 beat Sunday to Manchester City at Wembley Stadium, while they've achieved the semifinals of the Europa League. Demba Ba obtained in the 66th moment to ignite and try a late move, but Chelsea failed to get the equaliser despite pressure following installation of Fernando Torres. "We created plenty of opportunities to report the 2nd goal, so we were unlucky, but this really is football," Juan Mata said. "We have big games in the future we must win and to be in the best place in the category and win the Europa League." Avoiding their poor path form will be type in nailing down a return to the profitable Champions League. Chelsea have dropped three on the bounce outside Stamford Bridge in league play and are winless in four over all, conceding eight goals in those matches. Getting Torres to reproduce his goal-scoring prowess in league play would also go a long way. Seventeen of the Spaniard's 24 objectives across all tournaments in 2013 have been in non-domestic competition, and his last Premier League goal came Dec. 23 against Aston Villa. Torres has two goals in seven whole life league matches versus Fulham. The Cottagers (10-10-12), as seemingly the case every year, are pleasantly mid-table with 40 items and all but certain to go back to the very best flight. Fulham are now 10th and seek a third straight home victory after claiming only 1 place from their previous two suits on the way. Fabian Delph served secure this time Saturday at Villa Park, rating in the second to create a draw while Mark Schwarzer finished with six saves. "The last handful of weeks we have been sitting on 39 items and people have been saying that we're safe," the goalkeeper said. "But we knew that, mathematically, we weren't safe, and we're still not mathematically safe so it is usually positive, from a psychological standpoint, to make the journey to 40 points, and we'll stop on from there." These good feelings have already been absent against elite opposition at Craven Cottage, with Fulham dropping to top runners Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham at home in 2013. The teams played to a scoreless draw in the slow fitting at Chelsea on Nov. 28, the next straight category match the teams have split points. Chelsea have 12 wins and 10 allures the past 23 Premier League matches involving the factors, with the main blemish a defeat at Craven Cottage on March 19, 2006. Fulham are winless within their last 13 category suits (0-7-6) versus the Blues.

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