Welcome to the new order in West London?

Chelsea's recent woes have made derbies more critical than any time recently

Chelsea makes the less than two-mile trip to Craven Cottage today to face a Fulham side that is incredibly enough, above them in the Premier League table. In fact, Brentford, just a few more miles down the road is also above Chelsea in the table at the moment. So not only is Chelsea not competing for the league title, but they’re currently 3rd in their own neighborhood.

This is unlikely to last very long as inevitably Chelsea will storm up the table this season (particularly if João Félix, temporarily liberated from Diego Simeone brings some additional creativity in the final third) and both Fulham and Brentford likely level off, but it is a fun talking point right now.

The current situation at Chelsea under new American ownership fronted by Todd Boehly is worthy of deeper examination - but that’s not our topic for today.

West London is one of the most cosmopolitan, diverse and visited parts of the world, so in my opinion the four West London clubs (Brentford, Chelsea, Fulham and Queens Park Rangers) have some of the most interesting supporters cultures, fan bases and derbies in the world.