Crystal Palace are seeking a first Premier League win in four matches on Thursday (17:30 GMT) – indeed, our last victory coming up against a Fulham side who have gone on to win their next three, as their manager Marco Silva discussed...
In his pre-match press conference Fulham boss Marco Silva said recent wins over Burnley, Nottingham Forest and West Ham were because: “The main thing for us is about the unit, is about the group, and all the group is reacting very, very well for all the circumstances that the Premier League is showing to you.
“About ourselves as a group, they have been very, very good, and let's hope that we can perform again, we can be that focused, a team that shows our organisation, and wait for the quality and inspiration of some of our players – it's always needed in a football match to be there in the top level.”
Silva is reading nothing into the two teams' contrasting form books, however, explaining that this season's tight Premier League table – which sees Palace currently sit 11th, and Fulham 12th, halfway through matchround 19 – is: "just an example of how football, and how the Premier League, is demanding.
“The margins between winning or not are so, so tight, so many small things can decide a game.
“I gave an example less than one month ago – we played against [Palace] at home, and everybody that was at the stadium analysing the game is not going to say that they deserved the three points. And they got it.
“Football is so, so tight, it’s so demanding, and I don't know the reason [for Palace’s form], I don't know, and it's not important for me to talk about it. Of course, we know that we are going to face a very good side, very physical side, very, very physical side.
“Home and away, they are slightly different. When they play away – and we have a good example of it last game that we played at home against them – they wait, they are much more in a low block and much more solid, and wait for the opposition to take all the risks.
“Playing home, they have to be slightly different. I recognise their quality, credit for them for the [year they’ve had in] 2025. It’s going to be another tough game for us.”
Fulham's Nigerian trio of Alex Iwobi, Calvin Bassey and Samuel Chukwueze are all away on international duty at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
Full-back Ryan Sessegnon and forward Rodrigo Muniz, meanwhile, look set to remain sidelined with hamstring injuries.
How's this for another contrast: Fulham have played 18 Premier League matches so far this season and both won eight and lost eight, with just two draws.
In other words, when they've been good, they've been very good – but they've also been inconsistent.
The Cottagers are one of four teams, Palace included, on 26 points so far this season, but remarkably that means they still just six points off the Champion's League places nearing the campaign's halfway mark.
Fulham enjoyed a decent start to 2025/26, only losing to Champions League-chasing Chelsea in their first five games. Wins against Leeds and Brentford saw them collect eight points from that initial run, before a tricky period followed.
The Cottagers lost four on the bounce in the autumn, only the second time this had happened under Silva during his four year spell at the club, painfully losing in the last minute of normal time to Newcastle.
But they responded well: high-flying Sunderland were beaten at the Cottage, before early goals from Kenny Tete and Harry Wilson saw Spurs defeated on their own patch.
Although they then suffered back-to-back losses against City and Palace at home, they have responded with three wins on the bounce to move closer to the top-half of the table – where they have not finished since their first season back in the top-flight in 2022/23.
This is Marco Silva’s ninth season in the English game, having previously managed Hull City, Watford and Everton in the Premier League.
Fulham's confidence in his project was underlined by their investment in the team in the summer of 2024, including former Palace defender Joachim Andersen. Silva and Fulham had a quieter summer last time out, but still spent £34.6million on Brazilian star Kevin.
He is currently the sixth-longest serving manager across the Premier League and EFL, having been in charge at Craven Cottage since July 2021.
Prior to his time in England, Silva delivered major silverware by winning the Portuguese Cup at Sporting CP and the Greek Super League with Olympiacos.
Crystal Palace v Fulham
The margins between winning or not are so, so tight, so many small things can decide a game
—Marco Silva
