Chelsea versus Fulham Preview

South London meets West London tonight on Sky, when struggling Crystal Palace try to end their awful start to the season with a win. Palace have not yet gained a point at Selhurst Park this season and the omens are not good. The tag "Premiership Whipping Boys" is beginning to ring true. Despite that, the two sides cannot be split in the betting with Stan James. Both teams are at 6/4, and the Draw is 12/5. So where's the value tonight and are the prices a true reflection of teams.Fulham have had a spluttering start themselves. Eight points from seven starts leaves The Cottagers six places ahead of Palace, but it still isn't particularly impressive. Chris Coleman will fancy his team's chances.......sure.......but so will Iain Dowie. This is a must win game for Palace. If they are going to have any chance whatsoever of escaping the relegation zone....at any time this season......this has to be three points. So the stakes are high, and with home advantage the 6/4 is about right. They will be pumped up and ready, and won't fear Fulham like they might do with other sides. The team news is that Andy Cole, Claus Jenzen and Papa Diop are ruled out for Fulham. Crystal Palace probably have their new signing Greek International Vassilios Lakis available to play and are more or less full strength. On the face of it then, you would expect goals tonight. Both sides will be positive in their approach to the game, so we should see a fair bit of goalmouth action, but it is difficult to call either way. The draw would be the obvious conclusion. 1-1 is 11/2, 2-2 is 14/1. A better betting option would be over two goals at 4/5. You feel goals are in the air. You could make a very good case for backing Fulham though. At 6/4 they do look a tad tempting. They'll have a good following at the game. They certainly will see it as their easiest game of the season so far, and they have the class to pull it off. Which ever way you go, the game will be entertaining and worth tuning into. We bet in-running up to the 80th minute at Stan James, so waiting to see how the match pans out early....and then getting involved...could be an alternative. Good luck. All the markets on tonight's game are available at www.stanjames.com