Fulham vs Queens Park Rangers. Sky Bet Championship.
Craven CottageAttendance18,320.
Watch live on Sky Sports Football from 7pm; Kick-off is at 7.45pm
Friday 22 November 2019 22:04, UK
Fulham face QPR in the Sky Bet Championship on Friday night, live on Sky Sports Football.
Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic is suspended for their Sky Bet Championship clash with west London rivals QPR on Friday night.
Mitrovic picked up his fifth booking of the season in their last game before the international break, so will miss the game at Craven Cottage. Tom Cairney (illness), Harry Arter (calf) and Joe Bryan (back) could all return, however.
QPR will also be missing a player through suspension, after Geoff Cameron also picked up his fifth booking of the campaign.
Yoann Barbet, meanwhile, has failed to recover from a muscle injury.
Fulham got back to winning ways before the international break as they won 1-0 at Birmingham. That result saw them bounce back from two disappointing previous results that saw them draw 0-0 at Middlesbrough then lose 3-0 at home to Hull.
QPR have slumped to four games without a win, while their last two results have seen them lose 2-0 at Leeds and then draw 2-2 at home to Boro.
Fulham's Scott Parker: "This league is about momentum. International breaks have come at the wrong time for us, so certainly that could be pleasing. We're looking to put our foot to the floor and see where it takes us.
"It's a league where if you win two or three games, you're right up there."
QPR's Mark Warburton: "It's all about expectations being realistic. We want to finish as high as we possibly can. We should be higher but you look at a couple of recent things.
"I said to the players before the game [against Middlesbrough], one point out of nine looks like a poor run of form and then we get the feedback from two very, very harsh decisions in the Reading and Brentford games which adds on three or four points to their total."
Fulham have scored 24 goals in the Championship this season, and 12 of them have been struck by Aleksandar Mitrovic. They would be nine points worse off with him.
However, the Serbian finds himself suspended for the visit of QPR, having picked up five yellow cards, so how will they cope without him leading the line? They have no obvious replacement for him in the squad and it will give their west London rivals a huge lift.
Fulham have lost just one of their last seven league matches against QPR (W4 D2), though that defeat was at Craven Cottage in October 2016.
QPR are unbeaten in their last two away league visits to Fulham (W1 D1) since losing five in a row between 1999 and 2015.
QPR won their last away league London derby against Millwall - they haven't won consecutive away London derbies since October 2010.
Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic has scored more Championship goals than any other player this season (12) and has scored seven of Fulham's last nine league goals.
Fulham haven't lost consecutive home Championship matches since October 2016 under Slavisa Jokanovic.
QPR manager Mark Warburton's one away league match at Fulham was in April 2015, winning 4-1 with Brentford when the Cottagers were managed by Kit Symons.
How will Fulham get on without Aleksandar Mitrovic? He has been so, so important to them since he arrived at the club and his suspension is a huge blow for this west London derby.
QPR have hit the buffers in recent weeks, and are without a win in four. Maybe the international break will have given them a chance to recharge their batteries and they can grab a draw.
David Prutton predicts: 2-2 (12/1 with Sky Bet)
