Fulham FC

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• Founded:1879
• Manager:Mark Hughes

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Preview: Fulham v Man City

18 Mar 2010 - 15:36:48

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Fatigue could be Fulham's biggest problem as they attempt to halt Manchester City's push to secure a place in next season's Champions League.

The Cottagers have played Juventus twice in the last week, with a Premier League game at Manchester United in between, while an FA Cup sixth round replay at Tottenham is also on the horizon.

There have been signs recently that Roy Hodgson's side are starting to suffer from tiredness as a hectic schedule begins to catch up with them.

Their season began in July with a Europa League game at FK Vetra and Sunday's encounter will be their 51st of the campaign.

They remain difficult to beat at Craven Cottage though where they have won nine of their 14 Premier League matches but they could be without the services of Brede Hangeland (chest), Andrew Johnson (knee) and John Paintsil (cruciate ligament), who are all expected to miss the visit of Roberto Mancini's team to the capital.

City, without ever really looking majestic under their Italian coach, remain well placed to clinch the much-coveted fourth spot with an unlikely 4-2 victory at Chelsea and last-gasp equaliser at Sunderland keeping them on track.

Since last month's surprising 2-1 defeat at Hull City, Mancini's team have put together a five-match unbeaten sequence in the league and they go into this weekend's fixtures sixth in the table, only two points adrift of fourth-placed Tottenham and with a game in hand.

Wayne Bridge and Martin Petrov (both knee) are both out of the the game while Michael Johnson will play no more football this season because of his own knee problem.

City will be hoping to improve on their display against Fulham at Eastlands in October when they contrived to let a two-lead slip as they eventually drew 2-2.