Fulham will be hoping to make light of the loss of Moussa Dembele when they travel to Upton Park to face West Ham on Saturday.
London derby starts the Premier League weekend action
Fulham will be hoping to make light of the loss of Moussa Dembele when they travel to Upton Park to face West Ham on Saturday.
After a five-star display on the opening day before giving Manchester United a scare last week, the exit of their key midfielder to Tottenham has taken some of the gloss off Fulham's positive start.
The Cottagers were also eliminated from the Capital One Cup by Championship side Sheffield Wednesday in midweek and Martin Jol will be anxious to get his players focused for this one.
Like their visitors for this lunch-time kick-off West Ham began their Premier League campaign with a home win before losing on their travels.
But it was the manner of the Hammers' 3-0 drubbing at the hands of Swansea that will have worried Sam Allardyce last weekend.
Poor errors from Jussi Jaaskelainen and James Collins added to their woes but his team looked disjointed throughout.
Perhaps the West Ham boss took encouragement from Tuesday's 2-0 cup win over Crewe because those fringe players may well need to be called upon at the Boleyn Ground on Saturday.England striker Andy Carroll is in line to make his West Ham debut against Fulham after completing a season-long loan switch from Liverpool.
Left-back George McCartney (ankle) and centre-halves James Collins (calf) and Winston Reid (knee) face late fitness tests after picking up knocks against Swansea last weekend.
Midfielder Jack Collison remains sidelined with a knee problem but the likes of Jussi Jaaskelainen, Guy Demel, Mark Noble, Mohamed Diame and Matt Jarvis will return after they were rested for the midweek Capital One Cup win over Crewe.
Fulham boss Martin Jol will welcome back the majority of the players who missed the midweek Capital One Cup defeat at Sheffield Wednesday.
Forward Mladen Petric did not feature in the 1-0 loss due to a slight knock, while midfielder Mahamadou Diarra was rested.
Full-back John-Arne Riise returns following a muscular injury but Bryan Ruiz, who pulled up with a hamstring problem during the warm-up at Hillsborough, is a doubt with Kerim Frei (pelvis) and Philippe Senderos (foot) still ruled out.
Kieran Richardson has joined for Sunderland and more arrivals are expected before the deadline.
