Marco Silva labelled Sunday's west London derby against Chelsea as a "final" for his Fulham team.

Fulham lost 1-0 to Bournemouth on Monday, all but ending their Champions League hopes.

They are still firmly in the hunt for qualification for either the Europa League or Conference League, though.

Chelsea, meanwhile, need to get back on track after their 2-2 draw with Ipswich Town saw them miss a chance to move into the top four.

Enzo Maresca's team followed that up with a shock home loss to Legia Warszawa in the Conference League, though they nevertheless progressed into the semi-finals with a 4-2 aggregate victory.

But Silva says the upcoming clash is just as important to Fulham as it is the Blues.

"It's a final for us, too. We have our goals to fight for," he said.

"Any game is going to be important because the season is coming to an end. A special derby for the fans being able to play at home.

"With our fans, quality, ambition, passion, it'll be crucial to get a good result."

All together from the off.
— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) April 19, 2025

Since securing promotion to the Premier League under Silva in 2022, Fulham have gone from strength to strength.

Asked about the culture shift at the club, Silva said: "When I joined, the club was down.

"The fans were not happy, it was a process to create our own identity and philosophy.

"We have made the club grow. I created it with my staff. The relationships with the staff, people at the top of the club are always there."

Maresca, meanwhile, was far from impressed with Chelsea's performance in Thursday's 2-1 loss to Legia, though he pointed out he did heavily rotate his side.

"We rested Enzo [Fernandez], Moises [Caicedo], Levi (Colwill), Noni [Madueke], Pedro [Neto], we rested many players.

"We are, for sure, not happy about the Conference League result, but at the same time, we try to manage a little bit and rotate players."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Fulham - Rodrigo Muniz

Muniz has scored in three of his last five Premier League London derbies, scoring each goal as a substitute, playing only 71 minutes in these games.

The Brazilian has six goals in 16 London derbies and has the best minutes per goal ratio in these games of any player with 200+ minutes (one every 76 minutes).

Chelsea - Cole Palmer

Palmer has 19 assists in 64 Premier League appearances for Chelsea. Only two players have reached 20 assists for the club in 65 or fewer games – Cesc Fabregas (47) and Juan Mata (49).

The England attacker has not been in the best of form in 2025, but that does not mean Fulham will be able to give him any freedom.

MATCH PREDICTION: DRAW

Since scoring 11 goals across three consecutive away Premier League wins in November and December, Chelsea have scored just three goals in eight away games (D3 L5). They had a 19% shot conversion rate in those three wins, but that has dropped to just 3% in their eight winless games.

Fulham, meanwhile, have won each of their last two home Premier League matches and are looking to win three in a row for the first time since December 2023.

Having won the reverse fixture at Stamford Bridge, Fulham are looking to complete the league double over Chelsea for the very first time, in what is the 40th different league campaign in which they have met.

Fulham have won two of their last five league games against Chelsea (D1 L2), more than they had in their previous 35 against the Blues (W1 D12 L22).

However, Chelsea have won five of their last six Premier League away games against Fulham, with the exception being a 2-1 loss in January 2023.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Fulham - 35.5%

Chelsea - 38.9%

Draw - 25.6%