Following strong starts to the Championship campaign, Birmingham City and Fulham will clash in the second round of the EFL Cup on Tuesday.
The Blues defeated Colchester United to reach this stage and recorded a dominant league win last time out, while their visitors will enter the competition at this stage after an unbeaten start to the league campaign.
Match preview
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After Lee Bowyer guided the club to safety following his appointment late last season, Birmingham headed into the new campaign with a refreshed sense of optimism, and they made the perfect start in their opening trip to Sheffield United.
Despite entering that clash as underdogs, the Blues took an early lead through Maxime Colin and would put up a resolute defensive display to see out the one-goal victory before a Marcel Oakley goal fired them to a 1-0 win over fourth-tier Colchester United in the first round of the EFL Cup.
Bowyer's men then returned to league action as they earned a point from a goalless draw with a dangerous Stoke City outfit, before AFC Bournemouth handed them their first defeat of the season as Scott Parker's men left St. Andrew's with a 2-0 win.
The Midlands outfit bounced back in style last time out, as they faced the tough task of a trip to Luton Town, with an early Marc Roberts goal putting them ahead before a Scott Hogan brace gave them a three-goal lead.
Gary Gardner and Chuks Aneke then got on the scoresheet in the final 10 minutes to cap off an impressive day and seal a 5-0 win to see them move onto seven points from four league outings.
Bowyer's men will now look to continue their impressive start to the season against another strong Championship outfit on Tuesday in cup action.
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Fulham come into the second round of this year's EFL Cup on the back of an unbeaten start to the Championship season.
Following the departure of Scott Parker over the summer, Marco Silva took charge of the newly-relegated Cottagers with the hope of immediately leading them back to the top flight, but they were held to a point on the opening day as Middlesbrough hit a late equaliser at Craven Cottage to see the game finish 1-1.
It did not take the London outfit long to record their first win though, as the next outing produced a 5-1 away victory over Huddersfield Town thanks to first-half goals from Aleksandar Mitrovic, Josh Onomah and Fabio Carvalho and a late Ivan Cavaleiro brace, despite Harry Wilson being sent off with 20 minutes to go.
They followed that up with a 2-1 win over Millwall before making it three straight victories last time out with a 2-0 win over newly-promoted Hull City.
Mitrovic and Carvalho were again on the scoresheet in that outing, as they gave the Cottagers a two-goal lead before the break, with Silva's men seeing out their first league clean sheet of the campaign.
Currently sitting at the top of the Championship thanks to that strong start, Fulham will now hope to kick off their cup campaign with another victory to continue building momentum.
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Team News
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Given their intense start to the league campaign, Birmingham City will likely take the opportunity to rest several key players with Saturday's league trip to Barnsley on their mind.
Goalkeeper Neil Etheridge remains out of action through injury, while Lukas Jutkiewicz, Ivan Sunjic and captain Harlee Dean are likely candidates to be rested.
Chuks Aneke should be given a start, having hit his first Birmingham goal on Saturday after arriving from Charlton Athletic in the summer, while George Friend and Gary Gardner could replace Dean and Sunjic respectively.
Tahith Chong has impressed since his loan move from Manchester United, and he should feature heavily again on Tuesday.
Young attacker Ivan Carvalho has been a breakout star so far for Fulham this season, hitting three goals in the first four league games of the campaign, and he will look to continue his momentum on Tuesday.
Star forward Aleksandar Mitrovic may be rested alongside experienced centre-back Tim Ream, while Bobby Reid and Alfie Mawson are expected to come into the starting XI alongside substitute goalkeeper Marek Rodak.
Birmingham City possible starting lineup:
Sarkic; Pedersen, Roberts, Friend; Colin, Woods, Gardner, Bela; Chong, Aneke, Leko
Fulham possible starting lineup:
Rodak; Tete, Adarabioyo, Mawson, Bryan; Seri, Onomah; Kebano, Carvalho, Cavaleiro; Reid
We say: Birmingham City 1-2 Fulham
Given the strong starts of both sides and the likelihood of key players being rested, this could come down to which team has the greater squad depth, and we think the Cottagers narrowly edge it.
The visitors boast plenty of Premier League quality in their ranks, while Carvalho has lit the league up in the first four games, and we would not look past him starring in another victory.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Fulham win with a probability of 50.25%. A draw had a probability of 26.3% and a win for Birmingham City had a probability of 23.4%.
The most likely scoreline for a Fulham win was 0-1 with a probability of 13.47%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (9.96%) and 1-2 (9.13%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.35%), while for a Birmingham City win it was 1-0 (8.36%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 10% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Fulham would win this match.
