Fulham v Charlton
Charlton head coach Iain Dowie could be welcoming back a number of injured players when the Addicks travel to Craven Cottage on Monday night (Sky, 8pm).
Dowie saw Souleymane Diawara, Jerome Thomas and Omar Pouso come through a private reserve game last week, while Dennis Rommedahl is fit again having featured in Denmark's last qualifying game.
Though Djimi Traore is still sidelined, the Addicks squad has a far meatier look about it as the Valley men square up to arguably the most important game of the season so far.
The official Charlton website, most of you will know, has a fans' views section.
It is the duty of the club's communications team to keep it updated, and the daily process involves ploughing through numerous posts, editing them, and finally putting them live on the site.
Apart from providing supporters with a valuable platform to air their views, it also offers our media team, and the club, an alternative and important insight into the general mood among the SE7 faithful.
At times it can be an arduous procedure, especially when certain threads start to go off at a tangent and when emotion starts to override reason, but reading between the ramblings can sometimes also reveal a lot about the state of play at The Valley and how things are being viewed from the stands.
Predictably, the vast majority of posts over the past few weeks - once it became clear that Charlton were enduring their worst ever start to a Premiership season - have been negative, but as interesting as what has been said is what hasn't.
There has been criticism of Addicks head coach Iain Dowie, his signings, Alan Curbishley's departure; in a nutshell, all the usual stuff.
Conspicuous by its absence, however, has been much criticism of the team's actual performances and, tellingly, not a single fan has uttered the immortal cliché of the downbeat supporter: "I can't see where a win is going to come from".
The reason for this is that most supporters can see where a win is going to come from. Though results have been desperate, there has been nothing desperate about the way Dowie's men have played and at no stage have any of the displays suggested the Addicks are in trouble, whatever the league position may say.
With millions of pounds worth of talent on the verge of returning, it seems merely a question of time before results start to change and Dowie will be hoping that it begins on Monday night at Fulham (8pm kick-off - live on Sky).
The opposition
A very tough early run of fixtures coupled with the fact that the Charlton boss lost three of his new signings at Chelsea early last month always seemed to suggest that the SE7 men's season would begin in earnest at Craven Cottage, and now that moment of truth has arrived.
While Fulham are among a batch of sides from which Dowie will be expecting to pick up points, however, Chris Coleman's Cottagers will be no soft touches.
So far, the South-West Londoners are doing a decent job of defying pre-season claims they would be among the relegation contenders with a creditable nine points from seven games, good enough for 12th spot in the Premiership table.
Indeed, like Dowie, Coleman will have been keen to point out that both of his side's defeats this season have been against top clubs - Manchester United and neighbours Chelsea to be precise.
And aside from those two reverses - a 5-1 mauling at the hands of the Red Devils on the season's opening day and a 2-0 defeat to the Blues before the international break - Fulham's results have been solid with Coleman delighted that his away-day curse from last season appears to have been lifted.
The Cottagers picked up just one victory on the road last term on the way to 12th spot, and already Coleman's men have scored a fine 2-1 victory at St James' Park of all places, as well as draws at Tottenham Hotspur and then Watford last Monday night.
Though Jimmy Bullard, now injured, has quickly become a hit with the Fulham faithful, it's difficult to put the Cottagers' improvement down to an influx of new faces over the summer.
Coleman brought in just five players in the close season, and two of them, cover goalkeeper Jan Lastuvka and defender Gabriel Zakuani, have featured just once each in the shock Carling Cup defeat against Wycombe Wanderers.
Frank Queudrue, a free transfer from Middlesbrough, has featured prominently but injury has restricted Spurs loanee Wayne Routledge to four appearances although he featured for England U21s alongside Charlton's Scott Carson against Germany last midweek. Former Addicks midfielder Claus Jensen, recently linked with a move away from Fulham, has only played one match this season, and that in the cup defeat.
Fulham's goals have been shared out pretty equally between Bullard, Heidar Helguson and Brian McBride, who have all claimed two each, and Coleman will also have been pleased with the fact that only one club can better Fulham's returns when going behind in games.
The South-West Londoners have come from behind to take all three points against Newcastle and the Cottagers were also trailing 2-0 before battling back to lead 3-2 in an eventful 3-3 draw against Watford earlier this month.
Head to head
The head-to-head record between the two clubs is not as tight as you'd probably expect, with Fulham winning four of 10 Premiership encounters compared to the Addicks' two, though overall the points have been divided equally over the past two seasons.
Likely line up
A more pressing matter for Dowie though, will be which players to select for the vital clash.
Both Souleymane Diawara and Jerome Thomas came through a specially arranged reserve game at Arsenal last week and Dennis Rommedahl's involvement with Denmark in last Wednesday's qualifier against Liechtenstein suggests that the speedy Dane has shaken off his minor groin problem.
While Rommedahl could slot straight back in on the right, Thomas' absence since pre-season will probably mean only a bench spot for the winger.
That means a likely left-midfield berth for Andy Reid, with Bryan Hughes, Matt Holland, Omar Pouso and Radostin Kishishev battling it out for the right to partner Amady Faye in the middle.
Charlton might have already come up against the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal but make no mistake, Monday night's match is the biggest game of the season so far.
- Tickets will be on sale at the turnstiles at Craven Cottage - cash only. Seats are £25 adults, £15 over 65s and £5 U17s.
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