Marco Silva has spoken an awful lot in the build up to tonight’s meeting with Wolverhampton Wanderers about the need for his Fulham side to put an end to their poor form which threatens to drag them further into the relegation conversation towards the foot of the Premier League table. It is a theme to which several players have returned in the run-up to the televised contest at Craven Cottage, with Timothy Castagne talking about moving up the table and planning a serious assault on the League Cup whilst a refreshed Antonee Robinson has spoken of the need to ‘turn the tide’ of a poor run of results.

Silva knows that ending a four-match winless run won’t be easy against an improving Wolves side, who are beginning to flourish under the leadership of Gary O’Neill. O’Neill’s side have lost only one of their last seven league matches and head to London in good form in front of goal, having scored in each of their last eleven Premier League matches – their most potent record since 2019. They haven’t kept a clean sheet away from home since beating Everton at Goodison Park in August and having won a top-flight encounter in London in eleven attempts, although Wolves will be buoyed by a fantastic record at Craven Cottage.

The recent head-to-head record certainly favours the visitors. After two draws last season, Fulham are without a win over Wolves in six matches since Ryan Sessegnon and Aleksandar Mitrovic stunned the league leaders to reignite the Whites’ Championship promotion push in 2018. You have to go back to March 2012 when Fulham thumped Terry Connor’s side 5-0 at Craven Cottage for Fulham’s last Premier League success – something that Silva will want to put right this evening. If you want even more bad omens, Fulham have lost all of their last six Premier League games to be played on a Monday night. The task will certainly be tougher without the suspended Joao Palhinha, who has been the heartbeat of Fulham’s midfield since arriving from Sporting Lisbon last summer, and that will give the Portuguese head coach something of a selection puzzler.

Harrison Reed would be the like-for-like replacement for Palhinha. Industrious in his running and a good reader of the game, the former Southampton schemer was a solid defensive midfielder – who starred in a disappointing relegation campaign under Scott Parker – until Silva reshaped the ‘Ginger Iniesta’ into more of a box-to-box operator. Reed has had to make do with a place on the bench since his boss paired new signing Alex Iwobi with Palhinha in the last couple of fixtures before the international break, but the Nigerian lost his runner for Aston Villa’s opener in Fulham’s last defeat – and Reed’s defensive diligence could prove handy against a Wolves side who are dangerous on the counter-attack.

Silva should have the services of Tosin Adarabioyo available again after the centre back finally returned to full training, whilst Kenny Tete could come back in at right back. The Fulham head coach has put his faith in former Wolves striker Raul Jimenez to haunt his old club after opening his Cottagers account in the Midlands a fortnight ago, but the Mexican veteran will need more movement and invention from the midfield – especially Andreas Pereira – in order to cause havoc this evening. Most crucially of all, the Whites will have to start at a high tempo than they have done in previous outings in what already feels like something of a six-pointer.

Wolves will be boosted by the availability of former Fulham loanee Mario Lemina, who is fit to take his place in midfield despite rolling his ankle whilst representing Gabon last week. Lemina has popped up with a couple of big goals already during this campaign and Fulham will need to watch a number of threats in O’Neill’s line-up, especially the dangerous Hwang Hee-chan and Matheus Cunha.

MY FULHAM XI (4-2-3-1): Leno; Tete, A. Robinson, Bassey, Ream; Reed, Iwobi; Wilson, Willian, Pereira; Jimenez. Subs: Rodak, Ballo-Toure, Adarabioyo, Castagne, Lukic, Cairney, De Cordova-Reid, Harris, Vinicius.