Fulham v West Ham United
Mid-season match, Craven Cottage, Saturday 17 December 2022, 1pm GMT
West Ham United complete their preparations for the return of the 2022/23 season with a trip to Premier League rivals Fulham on Saturday afternoon.
The Irons returned to training on 30 November before contesting warm-up fixtures at Cambridge United and Udinese, both of which ended in convincing victories. Goals from Jarrod Bowen and Saïd Benrahma helped the Londoners to a 4-2 win at EFL League One side Cambridge United in Greg Taylor’s Testimonial match, before Benrahma, Manuel Lanzini and Michail Antonio struck to secure a 3-1 victory at Italian Serie A club Udinese last weekend.
The third and final game ahead of the restart will be played at Craven Cottage, where David Moyes' side will take on their west London opponents in what promises to be an entertaining and testing 90 minutes.
Marco Silva's Fulham were beaten 3-1 at London Stadium in the Premier League in October, but have enjoyed a strong opening to the campaign after winning promotion last term, sitting ninth in the table on 19 points ahead of the FIFA World Cup break.
Tickets…
We have been allocated an initial 2,000 tickets for Saturday's lunchtime kick-off at Craven Cottage.
Tickets are available to buy now here, priced at £20 for Adults, £10 for Over-65s and Under-21s, and £1 for Under-18s.
Following Saturday's trip to Craven Cottage, West Ham will resume the 2022/23 Premier League campaign at Arsenal on 26 December, and then host Brentford at London Stadium four days later.
Tickets for the visit to Boxing Day visit to Emirates Stadium are sold out, but seats for the visit of the Bees in our final game of 2022 are available here via the Ticket Exchange.
How to follow…
You can follow the action via our live blog on whufc.com and our app and across our social media channels. We will also have highlights and exclusive reaction for you after the final whistle.
We will also be streaming the game worldwide on West Ham TV, available to watch both on whufc.com and our official mobile app. Match passes are priced at £5 and can be purchased by clicking here.
Travel…
Due to strikes involving RMT and TSSA union members, services operated by a number of train operating companies will either not run or be reduced on Saturday.
A reduced number of trains will run on Greater Anglia and c2c main line routes into London, starting from 7.30am and with journeys being completed by 6.30pm. There will be no services at all on Greater Anglia regional or branch lines.
There will also be a reduced service on Elizabeth line services from Shenfield to London Liverpool Street between 7.30am and 6.40pm.
London Overground services will also run from 7.30am to 6.30pm, except on the Romford to Upminster and Barking to Barking Riverside routes.
London Underground District line services to Putney Bridge will run until 6.30pm.
Abellio bus workers in the south and west of London are also holding industrial action on Saturday, meaning services will also either not run or be reduced.
Team News…
David Moyes will be without the five players who were selected by their respective nations for the FIFA World Cup finals in Qatar - Declan Rice, Alphonse Areola, Thilo Kehrer, Nayef Aguerd and Lucas Paquetá. The quintet are due to return to training at Rush Green next week.
The manager was without Maxwel Cornet, Aaron Cresswell and Kurt Zouma for the trip to Udinese. Zouma will definitely be unavailable for Saturday's game at Fulham.
The opposition...
Fulham will hope it is third time lucky after their last two Premier League campaigns ended with a swift return to the Championship.
Consecutive seasons in the top-flight will be the aim for American businessman Khan, who brought Fulham in 2013 and, in nine years since, has suffered three relegations and enjoyed three promotions.
After winning promotion in 2018, Fulham spent north of £100m, but went straight back down. After coming up in 2020, the Whites went hard in the loan market, but went straight back down.
This time around, Khan has adopted a more reserved approach when it comes to recruitment, going for quality rather than quantity, and so far it appears to have paid off, with Fulham sitting ninth in the table during the FIFA World Cup break.
The Whites are managed by former Hull City and Everton boss Marco Silva, who led the west Londoners to the EFL Championship title in his first season at Craven Cottage. Among his summer signings was West Ham defender Issa Diop.
While a repeat of the club's record-high Premier League finish of seventh, achieved in 2008/09, may beyond Saturday's hosts, there is surely a very real chance they will be a top-flight team again in 2023/24.
Previous meetings...
West Ham United and Fulham have met 25 times in the Premier League.
The Irons have had the best of things by far down the years, winning 15, while the Whites have won just four, with six draws.
The most recent Premier League meeting ended 3-1 in West Ham's favour on 9 October this year, when goals from Jarrod Bowen, Gianluca Scamacca and Michail Antonio cancelled out Andreas Pereira's early opener for the Whites.
Our most recent visit to Craven Cottage ended goalless on a soaking wet night on 6 February 2021, when Tomáš Souček was controversially sent-off for the Hammers and Alphonse Areola started in goal for the home side.
