Fulham boss Silva confident ahead of Chelsea game

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Fulham boss Marco Silva insists his side will make the short journey to Stamford Bridge on Friday feeling confident against big-spending Chelsea.

Chelsea, who sit in 10th spot in the Premier League, reacted to their poor start to the season by splashing out around £323m on eight players in January. The Blues were beaten 2-1 by Fulham just three weeks ago at Craven Cottage.


Although Silva stopped short of claiming Graham Potter is under pressure to make the top four following the heavy investment in his squad, he said the expectation levels on any Chelsea manager will always be huge.

“They have different targets and different pressures but if you have all this power in the market it creates different pressure and also hope among the fans as well,” Silva said.

“But this is a normal situation (for Chelsea). We will we go there confident. We are doing well, even in some moments when we don’t get the result we deserve, the next game has always been another chance for us to get a good result and we have often done that.

“It doesn’t mean with go there free to play football, but we know the three points are there.

“We know it is tough to play there, but we have trust in ourselves to play at our best level we can match them.”

Fulham, who can go sixth with victory on Friday, have in the past been no strangers to huge transfer window outlays but were relatively restrained during January, bringing in just Serbia midfielder Sasa Lukic from Torino for £8m and Arsenal right-back Cedric Soares on loan.

Despite admitting he was surprised to see Chelsea pay £105m for Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernanadez – seven months after he was signed by Benfica for £8m – Silva said he respected Chelsea’s determination to get the players they wanted.

“I think it is a good thing to show power in the market,” Silva said.

“People are talking about the big number of players, but I have to believe they know what they are doing.

“They have signed some players that many clubs are aware of and will be top, top players in the future.”