The Cottagers will play in the Championship next season after failing to pick up enough points to ensure their top flight status
Fulham have become the second team to be relegated from the Premier League this season following a 4-1 defeat to Watford.
Huddersfield’s Championship status for 2019-20 was confirmed on Saturday, becoming the second team ever to be relegated before the end of March. However, Fulham’s top-flight status did not last much longer as their fate was sealed with a defeat at Vicarage Road.
The Cottagers lasted just one season back in the Premier League after winning the Championship play-offs last season under Slavisa Jokanovic. However, despite guiding Fulham back to the top tier, the Serbian was out of a job by November with the club rooted to the bottom of the table.
Claudio Ranieri was tasked with turning things around for the West London club, but fared little better and was in 19th when he was sacked in February. Scott Parker took charge of Fulham on a caretaker basis for the remainder of the season and unfortunately will be the manager whose name goes into the history books as the man in the hotseat when their relegation was confirmed.
Fulham have picked up just 17 points this season, winning just four games. That last win came on January 29 against Brighton when Aleksander Mitrovic scored twice in a 4-2 victory. Mitrovic is the club’s top scorer this season with 10 goals in 32 games, with Andre Schurrle the only other player to score more than three goals in the league.
That lack of goals saw Fulham net 30 times this season, which is more than Cardiff and just one less than Newcastle, but their defence has been the league’s leakiest, conceding 76 goals in total.
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Ryan Babel netted his third goal in the defeat to Watford, having scored the equaliser after 33 minutes, but a second-half collapse ensured Fulham’s relegation with Will Hughes, Troy Deeney and Kiko Femenia all adding to Abdoulaye Doucoure’s goal to move Watford above Everton and Leicester in the top half of the table.
Fulham were last relegated in 2014 following 13 successive seasons in the top flight, but now return to the Championship where they have spent four of the last five years. With their future confirmed, the board will begin to plan for next season and whether to keep Parker as manager or replace him with someone else.
With Fulham having quickly joined Huddersfield, the 2018-19 season becomes just the second in the history of the Premier League to see two teams have their relegations confirmed with five or more matches remaining.