Fulham vs Middlesbroug

Fulham return to the Championship after a disappointing Premier League season, as they welcome Middlesbrough to Craven Cottage for their 2021/22 curtain-raiser.

After suffering relegation from the Premier League in 2020/21, Fulham brought Marco Silva back into the realm of management to replace Scott Parker. It’s now up to Silva to help the ‘Cottagers’ return to winning ways following an abysmal finish to last season. Indeed, Fulham went ten league matches without winning to conclude the previous campaign (D2, L8). Silva will be looking to maintain his strong home starts in English clubs after avoiding defeat in all of his last three managerial debuts in English football (W2, D1). Although it was against top-tier opposition, the Londoners lost each of their previous six league matches at Craven Cottage, frustratingly drawing a blank five times across that sequence.

In the meantime, an underwhelming finish to the 2020/21 Championship campaign (W2, D2, L5) prompted plenty of changes at Middlesbrough throughout the summer. After bringing in several top-notch talents, manager Neil Warnock will be looking to secure Premier League promotion for a whopping ninth time. A string of impressive displays during the off-season (W5, L1) should inject more confidence into this Middlesbrough side that last featured in the Premier League in 2016/17. Worryingly, though, the ‘Boro‘ have picked up just one win in their previous five league trips to Craven Cottage (W1, D1, L3), netting under 1.5 goals three times in the process. On the bright side, the visitors managed a solid 60% unbeaten rate as away league underdogs last term (W4, D5, L6).