Fulham vs. Hull predicted lineups: Who may start for Cottagers, Tigers?

Rarely have games at Craven Cottage felt as important as this one as Fulham host Hull in a match of huge importance for the club’s season and for Alvaro Arbeloa.

In what has been a bleak start to the season for the Cottagers, picking up just two points from their first six matches, there is immense pressure heading into a clash with a newly promoted side at home.

That pressure is of course, on the players themselves, who will know that anything other than a win is a disappointing result and for Arbeloa, who has reportedly been told that he needs at least four points from the next two matches to stand any chance of keeping his job.

Managers have begun being linked to the job, despite Arbeloa very much still occupying it, which is never a great sign, and there will be some worries in the Spaniard’s camp, despite his words about dealing with pressure.

Their opponents Hull are flying high, sitting in eighth in the table, having lost only one of their opening six matches, which came away at Newcastle.

So, there is significant pressure on Fulham, against a Hull side who are proving extremely tricky to beat - high stakes indeed.

But, with both sides eyeing this one up as a big opportunity to come away with all three points, how do we expect them to both line up?

If anything, Fulham’s inability to close out the match against Ipswich highlighted the fact that their starting XI is strong and the replacements are, shall we say, less strong.

Therefore, guessing the Fulham starting XI is not a hugely challenging task at the moment, with very few, if any changes expected from the one that took on Ipswich.

The one that perhaps could change is at left back, where Ryan Sessegnon started against Ipswich and scored, but a position in which Fulham do have luxuries in Antonee Robinson, assuming of course, that the American is fit again.

Other than that, it is hard to see where Arbeloa will make any adjustments at this stage of the season.

Fulham (4-2-3-1): Leno; Tete, Affengruber, Bassey, Sessegnon; Berge, Charles; Bobb, King, Iwobi; Garcia

Hull boss Sergej Jakirovic has been pretty consistent with his squad selection throughout this season thus far and he confirmed there were no injury concerns following the 2-2 draw with Everton.

For that reason, similarly to Fulham, it is hard to see where the changes come for the Tigers.

Joe Gelhardt started against Everton and scored, with Mohamed Belloumi coming off the bench to replace him and also scoring, that is a possible switch for this one, with Belloumi a very important player for Jakirovic.

Hull (5-4-1): Tzolakis; Coyle, Ajayi, Egan, Mendy, Giles; Belloumi, Crooks, Slater, Thomas; McBurnie