Are Fulham certain to be relegated from the Premier League?
Fulham's 3-0 defeat to Aston Villa left them bottom of the Premier League table without a point after three games of the new campaign.
It's left some fearing that it could be a repeat of the 2018/19 season, where they were relegated with just seven wins from 38 games.
Pundits and fans alike have already dismissed their survival hopes despite new additions during the transfer window. They've already been very active but more needs to happen if they are to retain top-flight status.
Fulham have actually made a worse start than their last Premier League campaign; they had three points after three games then thanks to a 4-2 victory over Burnley.
The poor start has led to the two seasons being compared and Scott Parker will be aware that he needs to arrest the slide quickly if a repeat is to be avoided.
But are Fulham certain to be relegated this season despite the fact there is 35 games remaining?
Bookmakers don't offer much hope
Performances across the first three games of the season have done enough to convince the bookmakers and punters that Fulham are set to suffer another relegation from the top flight of English football.
It's hit a point that, before the completion of the first month of the campaign, some have started paying out on the Cottagers to return to the Sky Bet Championship at the first time of asking.
Following that comfortable victory for Aston Villa at Craven Cottage, Paddy Power said: "I feel sorry for Fulham and Scott Parker, but it looks like their race is already run – so we’re paying out on them getting relegated this season."
For those with the odds still available, Fulham aren't given much chance of survival. Sky Bet are now offering 1/3 on the Cottagers being relegated, while Betfair are even shorter at odds of 1/4. Unsurprisingly, Fulham are also favourites in the market to finish bottom with Sky Bet providing the best price of 13/8.
They were the pre-season favourites for relegation but not to this extent. The hardening of their relegation odds highlights what a poor start it has been.
Carragher's mind made up
Former Liverpool defender and Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher told Monday Night Football that he is certain of Fulham's relegation back to the Championship.
Despite Liverpool winning the Premier League by 18 points last season, Carragher claimed that he is more confident in Fulham going down than he is of the Reds retaining their title.
"It was that bad a performance we were actually laughing at some of the defending," he said. "Fulham are going down, I've never been more certain of anything in my life, and they need to buy two, maybe three, four defenders."
After the game, director of football Tony Khan took to Twitter to explain their current transfer situation as they look to bring in defenders and Carragher believes he was wrong to do so.
He continued: "It never works [tweeting like Khan did] it always ends up in tears. What does Scott Parker think about that? What do those players in the dressing room, who may have to play next week at the back, think of that? Just keep your mouth shut.
"He was the one who was buying all those players two years ago, and made a mess of that. Shut your mouth, keep your head down, get on with it.
"It's difficult at Fulham at the moment, I'm more certain of Fulham going down than Liverpool winning the league. What we saw there defensively was unbelievable.
"Fulham were actually fortunate there was another game after them and we didn't properly analyse the goals.
"But Khan's tweet does not help. They were a mess last time they came up, what they don't want to be this year is a mess. They're going to go down, but almost go down as a club, be together, stick together."
What has happened already?
Fulham haven't gone overboard as we saw in the 2018/19 season when it comes to incomings but they have added first team reinforcements to their squad.
They welcomed 15 new faces in total during the summer window before that campaign and their collapse back down to the second tier led to the phrase 'doing a Fulham' - spending heavily or adding lots of new faces and still not surviving in the Premier League.
So far they've seen seven new incomings but two of those, Anthony Knockaert and Harrison Reed, were already at the club on loan deals last season.
Three players are in on temporary terms which includes goalkeeper Alphonse Areola, whose involvement in the recent defeat to Villa suggests that he will be the number one choice throughout the campaign.
Fulham's first team signings 2020/21
- GK: Alphonse Areola (loan)
- RB: Kenny Tete (permanent)
- RB: Ola Aina (loan)
- LB: Antonee Robinson (loan)
- MF: Harrison Reed (permanent)
- MF: Mario Lemina (loan)
- RW: Anthony Knockaert (permanent clause in loan deal)
In fact, only two of those new signings (Areola and Kenny Tete) started their most recent contest; Parker is showing a preference to the majority of the players who secured promotion to the Premier League.
Their business so far has been better than that infamous 2018/19 season. That window did bring the likes of Aleksandar Mitrovic and Joe Bryan but the loan signing of Andre Schurrle proved disastrous. That seemed to be a theme throughout their temporary arrivals.
This time around, getting Reed in on a permanent deal was sensible given his performances during their promotion campaign while Tete is a bit of a coup following his Champions League involvement with Lyon and his appearances in the Netherlands national team.
It would be unfair to compare the two transfer windows; Fulham just haven't targeted the right areas yet.
What needs to happen?
It's clear that, while Parker has kept faith in last season's side, change does need to occur if they are to survive their top-flight return.
As Carragher stated, their defending has been awful. Opposition attacks will be relishing their chance to come up against this Fulham back line because they know it will bring opportunities.
Centre-back is clearly a priority area. The desire for additions is clear from Khan's Tweets following the full-time whistle.
He wrote: "I apologize to @FulhamFC supporters for our performance tonight. We’ve looked to add centre-backs since Wembley.
"I’m sorry we haven’t yet as 2 got COVID + we lost a Free we thought was close + had another issue with a 4th CB. I promise players in + better efforts from this squad.
I should + will apologize repeatedly for that performance. I’m sorry everybody. We all need to do a better job. Everyone at the club for the past year worked really hard to get the team up, & now we need to work significantly harder to stay up. I promise better efforts than today
— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) September 28, 2020
"I should + will apologize repeatedly for that performance. I’m sorry everybody. We all need to do a better job.
"Everyone at the club for the past year worked really hard to get the team up & now we need to work significantly harder to stay up. I promise better efforts than today."
They have been unlucky in some aspects. Their move for Sassuolo defender Marlon collapsed after the centre-back failed a medical; the 25-year-old was set to complete the switch in a £13million deal.
They were one of a number of clubs linked with Juventus defender Daniele Rugani, but reports in Spain say that he will instead sign for Valencia. Fulham are clearly trying to add improvements, but with the deadline approaching next week, they are running out of time.
Will a centre-back arrive? It seems that a couple need to sign to address a seriously problematic area. It's now a balance between finding the quality, getting the right price and then getting it done before the deadline. That may force them to spend more than they originally would have hoped for.
But Khan's Twitter messages suggests that they may do just that. If not, it will be a serious own goal; fans are now expecting quality arrivals rather than hoping.
Fulham's only chance of survival is if that defence is improved by October 5.
Odds correct at 1130 BST (29/09/20)
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