Rampant Fulham will be aiming to keep their superb Championship form going when they travel to Peterborough United on Saturday afternoon.
The Cottagers have won five in a row and occupy an automatic promotion spot, while Peterborough are four points clear of the relegation zone.
Match preview
© Reuters
After beating Queens Park Rangers, Cardiff City, Nottingham Forest and top-two rivals West Bromwich Albion, Fulham produced their best display yet against Blackburn Rovers.
Marco Silva's side hit 10 unanswered goals past Blackburn, who had Jan Paul van Hecke sent off at 2-0, to make it 20 goals across that five-match winning stretch.
Indeed, Fulham's 43 goals from 16 Championship matches this term is the most a team has managed in the second tier of English football since Liverpool (also 43) in 1961-62.
That form has not been enough to catch leaders Bournemouth, who retain a two-point lead at the summit. More importantly, Fulham are now four points clear of West Brom in third.
Peterborough face a daunting task this weekend, then, as they aim to halt their free-scoring opponents' momentum.
© Reuters
United rescued a late draw against playoff contenders Huddersfield Town on Tuesday thanks to Jonson Clarke-Harris's strike to cancel out Danny Ward's opener six minutes earlier.
That followed on from a 3-0 loss at Swansea City, but seven points from their last four games has lifted the Posh into 20th place, four points above the relegation zone.
Darren Ferguson's side's home form has a nice symmetry to it this season - win, draw, loss, win, draw, loss, win, draw - which points towards a defeat on Saturday.
The overall form book would certainly suggest as much, too, though Fulham have failed to get the better of the Posh in their only two previous league encounters, losing both.
- L
- L
- W
- W
- L
- D
- L
- W
- W
- W
- W
- W
Team News
© Reuters
Silva made just one change to Fulham's starting lineup last time out, with Michael Hector making a first league start of the season in place of Tosin Adarabioyo.
Centre-back Tosin remains suspended here, so Hector should get the nod once again alongside Tim Ream in the week, though Alfie Mawson is another option.
Rodrigo Muniz scored twice from the bench and Tom Cairney set one up as a substitute, but Silva will surely want to stick with something close to the same XI for this contest.
As for Peterborough, Ferguson may be tempted to make a couple of changes on the back of the home draw with Blackburn.
Clarke-Harris made an impact from the bench with the equalising goal and may come into the side in place of Jorge Grant.
Dan Butler is another who is pushing for inclusion for United, who have been without Joel Randall and Jack Marriott of late.
Peterborough United possible starting lineup:
Cornell; Thompson, Edwards, Beevers; Ward, Norburn, Taylor, Burrows; Clarke-Harris, Dembele, Szmodics
Fulham possible starting lineup:
Rodak; Odoi, Hector, Ream, Robinson; Seri, Reed; Wilson, Cordova-Reid, Kebano; Mitrovic
We say: Peterborough United 0-3 Fulham
Fulham have won their last five matches by a 20-1 aggregate scoreline and enter this game as strong favourites to pick up another victory.
Peterborough may have lost only one of their last four games, but we cannot see beyond a routine away victory at the Weston Homes Stadium.
Top tip
Daniel Lewis
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 53.72%. A draw had a probability of 23.4% and a win for Peterborough United had a probability of 22.88%.
The most likely scoreline for a Fulham win was 0-1 with a probability of 10.34%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.79%) and 0-2 (9.15%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.07%), while for a Peterborough United win it was 1-0 (6.27%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 10.3% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 0-1 win for Fulham in this match.
