Rufus Brevett is buzzing ahead of Sunday’s first meeting between Fulham and Chelsea in sixteen years at Craven Cottage.

The televised clash is the first league fixture between the local rivals for eighteen years – and the first top-flight derby for 34 years. Chelsea scored nine goals in the last two meetings in the 1983/84 campaign – and Fulham have languished in the lower leagues whilst the Blues have won the FA Cup twice, the League Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup in the last decade.

Brevett, who looks likely to continue in Jean Tigana’s side in place of former Chelsea left-back Jon Harley, is relishing the big game having dropped down a division to join Fulham from Queens Park Rangers for £375,000 in February 1998. He told the Evening Standard:

 “I think the supporters are still pinching themselves that we are in the Premiership and we are playing Chelsea. This game seems to be all they have been talking about since we got promotion and I am really pleased for them. The derby side of things is mostly about the fans but it will be a full house and I am sure they will make it a good atmosphere.”