If you felt Fulham’s European hopes had ebbed away on the south coast last Monday, you weren’t alone. The desperately disappointing Dean Court defeat put the Cherries in pole position to clinch eighth place in the Premier League, but yesterday’s results opened up the door once again. Bournemouth’s failure to beat ten-man Crystal Palace, coupled with Brighton being beaten at Brentford, have offered Marco Silva’s side an opportunity to make up the ground they gave away when Chelsea come to Craven Cottage this afternoon.

No Fulham player should need any extra motivation in the SW6 derby but the prospect of clinching a first league double over our near neighbours in forty attempts is tantalisingly close. Silva’s side have frozen on the big occasion a little too often of late – think about both recent meetings with Palace if you want to look past last week at Bournemouth – but, in fairness, the Whites have become more competitive, both in derbies and in the top tier, since the Portuguese head coach guided them to the Championship title in his first campaign after succeeding Scott Parker.

This fixture has often mattered much more to Fulham fans than those on the blue half of the divide. That’s understandable, especially when you consider that the two teams from either end of the King’s Road went sixteen years without meeting each other following Fulham’s descent down the pyramid that also saw the club go bust in the mid-nineties. Chelsea have also had bigger fresh to fry, particularly in the Abrahomovic era, but even Enzo Maresca called this ‘a final’ after his team were booed off having reached the Conference League semi-final on Thursday despite being beaten at the Bridge by Legia Warsaw.

The former Leicester boss looks as if he’s on borrowed time already as the Blues have mustered just five league wins since before Christmas. Fulham’s first win at the Bridge in 45 years sparked a shocking run of form that has seen Chelsea go from title chasers to scrapping for a Champions’ League place. They have failed to win an away game in the league since edging a seven-goal thriller at Tottenham on December 8, scoring just three goals, whilst their talisman Cole Palmer has not scored in fifteen games. Maresca unwisely picked a fight with the club’s supporters, who are just as furious with Todd Boehly, and could well pay the price for failing to mould a team out of a millions of pounds worth of players came the close season.

It seems strange that left wing-back Marc Cucurella has become Chelsea’s most consistent goal threat when Palmer was making Pep Guardiola’s decision-making look more than questionable as earlier as last summer. The former Brighton full-back started the dire defeat at the hands of Poland’s fifth-best side on Thursday alongside Palmer, Nicolas Jackson, Jadon Sancho and Christopher Nkunku. Maresca’s muddled thinking must make life difficult for his players. Captain Reece James, who was given the chance to build his fitness in the middle of midfield on Thursday, condemned his own side for ‘disrespecting the competition,’ whilst gamely peering for the positives that his manager saw in a pitiful performance.

Rotation will likely be the order of the day again this afternoon, which might make Maresca more of a tinkerer than a man who managed both of his sides and is still enjoying his own Roman renaissance. Claudio Ranieri’s time at the Cottage is best forgotten, but he was a very modern manager in respect of utilising the full depth of his squad. Levi Colwill should return to the back four in place of former Fulham defender Tosin Adarabioyo, whilst Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo are likely to contest the crucial midfield battle against Sasa Lukic and Sander Berge. There might not even be a place on the bench for another familiar face in the form of Marcus Bettinelli, despite Filip Jorgensen’s jittery display against Legia.

Silva’s selection headaches appear more prosaic by comparison. Kenny Tete could come back in at right back, whilst Harry Wilson should be back on the bench after completing a full week of training as his recovery from the stress fracture in his metatarsal in January. The Fulham boss is unlikely to rest Antonee Robinson despite the American’s heavy workload and below-par performance at Bournemouth and the major talking point in the build up to this game will be whether to keep faith with Rodrigo Muniz, who has scored three of his last five London derbies including the famous winner on Boxing Day, or return to Raul Jimenez.

The Brazilian’s recent goal poaching – if you ignore his costly first-half miss on Monday – will probably be enough to get him the nod but Fulham will need to far more assertive than they where at the Vitality Stadium, where the sloppiest of starts cost them dear. Ryan Sessegnon will hope he can retain a starting place having been substituted by accident on a strange night on the south coast, although his failure to convert that far post header remains far too fresh in my memory.

Silva often speaks about matches coming down to Fulham focus on themselves, something echoed by Berge on Thursday. Neither of these teams could be described as consistent this campaign but league form often goes out the window on derby day. Just ask Chris Coleman, who masterminded a famous win in 2006 when Jose Mourinho’s men were on the cusp of winning consecutive league titles. Chelsea have triumphed on five of their last six visits to the Cottage. This afternoon needs the spirit that delivered the first derby victory in nineteen years when Willian and Carlos Vinicius hastened Graham Potter’s departure on a memorable night under the Cottage lights. Here’s hoping.

MY FULHAM XI (4-3-3): Leno; Tete, A. Robinson, Andersen, Bassey; Berge, Lukic, Iwobi; Traore, R. Sessegnon, Jimenez. Subs: Benda, Castagne, Diop, Reed, Cairney, Pereira, Wilson, Willian, Muniz.