Ah, the international break. Three weeks to sit and stew on our rather low points tally of two.
It’s quite easy to wallow in the doom and gloom and worry about where we are after five games. The reality is, the table can flip on a dime and suddenly a win or two helps to alleviate that mounting pressure.
While we’ve had a few years flirting with the potential prospect of European football, the reality of every season starts the same – hit that magic 40-point mark and go from there.
With that in mind, I thought I’d take a look at some of our other slow starts and whether where we were after five games actually mattered in the end or not, here’s the top (or bottom) five.
Four points: 2004-05, 2007-08, 2013-14 and 2018-19
A points tally we’ve obtained on four separate occasions (yes I know that makes more than five, but blame Fulham for being consistently inconsistent at the start of seasons). Interestingly, in three of these four we’ve either been relegated or stayed up on the final day.
The only outlier here was in 2004-05, which started with an Andy Cole brace in a 2-0 win over Bolton Wanderers and a Collins John leveler at the City of Manchester Stadium. A good start of four from our opening two was met by defeat to Europe-bound Middlesborough, domestic double-winning Arsenal and coming out on the wrong side of a 4-3 thriller at Fratton Park.
In hindsight, that was actually a decent return in a season that seemed to kick into life in the new year, with Chris Coleman’s side finishing 13th while also going relatively deep into both cup competitions.
The other three saw Fulham go through a combined eight managers and flatter to deceive for the most part. We’ll start (begrudgingly) with Lawrie Sanchez’s Fulham who again didn’t actually start “that” poorly with a win at home to Bolton as well as a point at the Cottage against Tottenham. Defeats to Arsenal, Middlesborough and Aston Villa were sandwiched in-between with Fulham going on to pick up points in six of the following seven fixtures.
It all fell apart for Fulham after that though with just one win from the next 17! Hodgson did turn it around and we all know what happened next.
We weren’t quite as fortunate in the other two campaigns. In 2013-14, Fulham started the season with a 1-0 win away at the Stadium of Light followed by defeats at Arsenal and at home to Newcastle United. A point (which should’ve been three) at home to West Brom was rounded out by a 2-0 defeat away at Chelsea. In a season that never truly got going, Jol turned into Meulensteen who quickly turned into Magath and a catalogue of errors both on and off the pitch sent Fulham down to the Championship after 13 years in the top flight.
Then we came back! It’s 2018-19, Slav’s swashbuckling Fulham are in town and the Khans have just chucked £100m down on a bunch of players. Oh, how foolish we were.
An opening day defeat at home to Crystal Palace (obviously) and a spirited performance in a defeat at Wembley (this time the temporary home of Spurs) was then met by a 4-2 win against Burnley and a point at the Amex following Fulham going 2-0 up against Brighton. Our annual defeat at the Etihad was easily brushed under the carpet and four points at the time didn’t actually look like a bad return.
Following that win against Burnley, Fulham failed to win in nine, Slav was gone for Claudio Ranieri and after a relatively okay start (with Christmas being particularly fruitful), Fulham won just once between January and April. Lazar Markovic came in for some reason, we scored three times at Turf Moor but lost 2-1 and a particularly dreary midweek trip to St Marys typified the campaign.
Overall, not the best reading.
Three points: 2011-12
Fulham started the 2011-12 campaign with three points with draws against Aston Villa on the opening day, Blackburn Rovers, and came behind from 2-0 to draw 2-2 with eventual league winners Manchester City – all interestingly at home. In true Fulham fashion, our away form left lots to be desired with defeats at Wolves and Newcastle. Fulham were also in Europe that season with that dreaded night at home to Odense lingering longer than any of the aforementioned league fixtures.
Fulham did begin to purr in the second half of the campaign (although a 6-0 win to QPR in October will remain one of the highlights) losing just seven of the 19 fixtures which included “Mr One-Season-Wonder” Pavel Pogrebnyak, a rare win at Anfield and a point at home to Chelsea.
Fulham ended the season ninth and similarly to 04-05, it just took a while to get going.
Two points: 2025-26
Fast forward to the here and now. Fulham currently sit in 19th with two points on the board. A 3-2 defeat against Chelsea on opening night was met with quiet optimism. Sure, we’ve conceded three to arguably the best attack in the league but that won’t happen every week? Fast forward two weeks, the same fate met us against Crystal Palace (obviously) with three goals from left-back!
The tide seems to slowly be turning now and positive performances against Liverpool and Manchester United leave still looking for our first win of the campaign. The table can and will change and Fulham have a real opportunity to springboard after the break playing all three of the promoted sides (albeit two have started quite well). Patience is a virtue and I think we’ll be just fine.
One point: 2020-21
Fair play to Scott Parker’s Fulham for managing to overshadow a literal global pandemic. It was absolutely torrid from start to finish with Fulham seemingly destined for failure before a ball was kicked. We took an age to make signings and this was genuinely our starting line-up for the opening day at home to Arsenal.
Marek Rodak, Denis Odoi, Michael Hector, Tim Ream, Joe Bryan, Tom Cairney, Harrison Reed, Neeskens Kebano, Josh Onomah, Ivan Cavaleiro and Aboubakar Kamara (good God).
As expected we were pumped by the Gunners, conceded four at Leeds and then shipped another three at home to Aston Villa. A 1-0 defeat away at Wolves was then followed by a point away at Sheffield United (a side also relegated that year). Signings did come in to be fair and from December to February we only lost four out of 15 fixtures.
The problem was we just couldn’t score and depressing days away at Aston Villa and Arsenal alongside gut-punching games at the Cottage against Wolves and Leeds littered the campaign. We chalked up the lowest goal tally at home a Premier League side has ever had. Whatever happens this year, one thing is for certain: we’ll certainly score a few more!
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