Table-toppers Fulham travel to Bloomfield Road to take on struggling Blackpool in the sixth gameweek of the EFL Championship. The Cottagers will look for a fifth consecutive win and continue their unbeaten start in the current season.
Blackpool will be hoping to end their poor start to the season and secure a win against high flying Fulham. Currently sitting 22nd in the table, Blackpool has managed two points in five games and lost their previous two home matches. Their previous match was a 1-2 away defeat at Millwall, in which Blackpool managed 31% possession with three shots on target.
Blackpool has an XG of 7.45 and ranks sixth in the list of an expected goal threat. But the home team has struggled to find the back of the net and only bagged four goals this season. While looking at the XG we can figure out that Blackpool has not performed that bad in comparison to their position in the league.
The above viz shows the shots that have been attempted against Blackpool and other teams. Blackpool has been poor in defence and the opposition have attempted 31 shots against them and this is the most in the league. The team also has a poor aerial duels win rate of 40.7% which is the second-lowest in the league.
Christopher Maxwell has been excellent in goal this season and managed to save 74.2% of the shots on target. He is the main reason behind Blackpool conceding only eight goals out of the 31 shots faced on target. Shayne Lavery has been the pick of the players up-front as the 23-year-old Northern Ireland international has managed to score two goals this season.
Fulham have been the most dominating team this season. The Cottagers have already scored 13 goals and have a high XG of 12.72. Their previous match resulted in a 3-0 hammering of Stoke where Fulham had nine shots on target. This Fulham team have kept a lot of possession and made the second-highest number of passes this season. The Cottagers have exploited the opposition penalty area with 120 touches overall and have the highest passes accuracy rate into the opposition final third. Their defence has been one of the best this season and has only conceded three goals from the 11 shots faced by the keeper.
Fulham’s duels win rate is poor when compared with the other top teams in the league. Their defensive duels win % is just 18.7% which is seventh-lowest in the league. When it comes to aerial duels, the Cottagers have only contested 193 duels with a poor win % of 44 %. The overall recoveries and recoveries in the opposition half are less in number when compared with the other top teams.
Aleksander Mitrovic has been the best player for Fulham this season with four goals and two assists. The Serbian took five shots against Stoke out of which three were on target and one of them resulted in a goal. His teammate Fabio Carvalho has also bagged three goals and an assist in the five matches played.
Fulham will go as the favourites to win this match. They have scored the most number of goals and are facing a team that has faced the most number of shots on target. Fulham will look to exploit Blackpool’s defence and look to extend their winning streak to five matches that will help them to strengthen their place at the top.
