If anyone doubted the enormity of the task of Fulham Football Club remaining a Premier League club then the harsh facts certainly emphasise the point.
With 25 games played, Fulham have only managed to accumulate 17 points, they are currently seven points adrift of safety and have not won away from home all season.
If our status as a Premier League club is to be retained then I reckon that Fulham need to pick up a minimum of another 19 points from the 13 games left, an average of more than one point a game.
If Fulham can take 19 points from those 13 remaining games, it will give them 36 points which, I’m surmising, will be enough to stay up.
But, whilst a run of victories would give us all hope that survival is possible, looking at the 13 fixtures left you do wonder where those wins are going to come from, with the 13 fixtures being as thus:
• Manchester United (h)
• West Ham (a)
• Southampton (a)
• Chelsea (h)
• Leicester City (a)
• Liverpool (h)
• Manchester City (h)
• Watford (a)
• Everton (h)
• Bournemouth (a)
• Cardiff City (h)
• Wolves (a)
• Newcastle United (h)
Before the season started, we stressed the need to pick up points from our home games, but our next four are very difficult affairs, with Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City providing the opposition.
It’d take a brave man to suggest Fulham would take, at best, more than 3 points from those four games.
Which leaves us looking at breaking that away duck when it comes to victories, are Fulham likely to prosper from the forthcoming trips to West Ham United, Southampton, Leicester City and Watford?
It’d take a brave man to suggest Fulham would take, at best, more than 6 points from those four games,
But, if Fulham do exceed the above expectations and rack up 9 points, it’d leave the club needing another 10 points from the last 5 fixtures of the season, wins against Everton (h), Cardiff City (h) and Newcastle (h), would take us tantalisingly close to that 36 point mark.
In fact, a point away from home, at either Bournemouth or Wolves could possibly see the escape complete.
But, then again, it can still go so horribly wrong!
COYW’s
Previous article by Andrew Joyce