With just two points keeping them from being top of the Championship, Fulham will feel that they have an excellent opportunity of trying to keep the pressure on leaders AFC Bournemouth when they play on Saturday.
Whilst they will have to hope that Derby County will do them a favour on Sunday, the Cottagers will know that if they win on Saturday afternoon they will be the team to be propped up by everyone else.
The west London outfit will also be competing against a team that finds themselves at the wrong end of the Championship table, as Barnsley head down from Yorkshire to the nation’s capital in the search of some desperately needed points.
Unfortunately, not many will be giving them too much of a chance at Craven Cottage, with Betway Sportsbook having priced the hosts at 2/7 overwhelming favourites to take the win on the afternoon and carry on their good form.
Of course, there are a number of different reasons as to why Marco Silva’s side will be heavily backed and fancied to take the number one spot in the table – at least temporarily – over the coming weekend, with recent performances and results being a key factor.
Fulham are unbeaten in their last six matches with each of them having been won convincingly since their surprise defeat to Coventry City last month. Included in that run is an impressive 3-0 victory over West Bromwich Albion, as well as the 7-0 annihilation of Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park.
Aleksandar Mitrovic has been incredible in front of goal for the club as he leads the goalscoring charts with 20 strikes (seven more than his closest challengers) and will want to put in another top performance after helping Serbia claim FIFA 2022 World Cup qualification in midweek.
Barnsley, though, will want to make things as hard as possible on the day as they are looking for their own three points as they attempt to try and climb out of the relegation zone and keep their league status at this point in the season.
The Tykes have already made a managerial change with Poya Asbaghi arriving at Oakwell as the replacement for Markus Schopp, although Jo Laumann will be the man in charge of the trip to Craven Cottage this weekend.
It looks to be an unenvious challenge for the Yorkshire outfit, which is why the hosts are considered to be overwhelming favourites for this contest and it would not be a surprise to see the end result show that.
