Marco Silva labeled the West London Derby against Chelsea as a “final” for his Fulham team.
Fulham lost 1-0 to Bournemouth on Monday, except to end their Champions League-Hoop.
However, they are still strongly looking for qualification for the Europa League of Conference League.
In the meantime, Chelsea has to get back on the right track after their 2-2 draw with the city of Ipswich saw them miss an opportunity to go to the top four.
The Enzo Maresca team followed that with a shock house loss for Legia Warszawa in the Conference League, although they nevertheless continued to the semi-final with a 4-2 aggregated victory.
But Silva says that the upcoming collision is just as important for Fulham as the blues.
“It's also a final for us. We have our goals to fight for,” he said.
“Every game will be important because the season is coming to an end. A special derby for the fans who can play at home.
“With our fans, quality, ambition, passion, it will be crucial to get a good result.”
All together from the start.
– Fulham Football Club (@Fulhamfc) April 19, 2025
Since securing promotion to the Premier League under Silva in 2022, Fulham has gone into force.
When asked about the culture shift in the club, Silva said: “When I became a member, the club was down.
“The fans were not happy, it was a process to create our own identity and philosophy.
“We let the club grow. I made it with my staff. The relationships with the staff, people at the top of the club are always there.”
In the meantime, Maresca was far from impressed by Chelsea's performance in the 2-1 loss of Thursday against Legia, although he pointed out that he had turned his side heavily.
“We rested and stuff [Fernandez]Moises [Caicedo]Levi (Colwill), Noni [Madueke]Pedro [Neto]We rested many players.
“We are certainly not happy with the result of the Conference League, but at the same time we try to manage a little and rotate players.”
Players to watch
Fulham – Rodrigo Muniz
Muniz scored in three of his last five Premier League London Derbies, scored every goal as a replacement and only played 71 minutes in these matches.
The Brazilian has six goals in 16 Derbies in London and has the best minutes per goal ratio in these games of each player with 200+ minutes (one every 76 minutes).
Chelsea – Cole Palmer
Palmer has 19 assists in 64 Premier League performances for Chelsea. Only two players have reached 20 assists for the club in 65 or fewer games – Cesc Fabregas (47) and Juan Mata (49).
The England attacker was not in the form of form in 2025, but that does not mean that Fulham can give him some freedom.
Match -Forecast: Draw
Since the scoring of 11 goals in three consecutive road Premier League victories in November and December, Chelsea has only scored three goals in eight from the matches (D3 L5). They had a shot conversion rate of 19% in those three victories, but that has fallen to only 3% in their eight profit -free competitions.
In the meantime, Fulham has won each of their last two Home Premier League matches and wants to win three in a row for the first time since December 2023.
After he has won the reverse competition on Stamford Bridge, Fulham wants to complete the competition for the first time about Chelsea, in what the 40th different competition campaign is in which they met.
Fulham has won two of their last five league matches against Chelsea (D1 L2), more than they had in their previous 35 against the blues (W1 D12 L22).
However, Chelsea has won five of their last six Premier League matches against Fulham, with the exception of a loss of 2-1 in January 2023.
Opta wins probability
Fulham – 35.5%
Chelsea – 38.9%
Drawing – 25.6%