BEVERLY HILLS, May 10, (THEWILL) – It was expected soon and it came on Monday night as Fulham’s unfortunate 2-0 loss to a very clinical Burnley side in the English Premier League Round 35 fixture at Fulham’s backyard in Craven Cottage served to relegate the hosts while ensuring the survival of the visitors in the top flight of English football for another season.
In truth, the odds did nothing to favour Scott Parker’s side ahead of the match. Fulham’s 18th league table position, which left them nine points behind the Clarets, meant they needed to win every one of their last four games to stand any chance of staying up. It was always going to be difficult especially as one of those matches is against second-placed Manchester United on Tuesday, May 18.
The difficulty to convert chances, which had marked their entire season was evident again against Burnley even as they progressively improved as the match went on. Burnley, on the other hand, displayed ruthless efficiency in converting their chances and that is why one team will remain in the EPL and the other will not.
Burnley’s Chris Wood continued his recent prolific form with his eighth goal in eight games. That perfect score in the 44th minute came after Ashley Westwood had poked Sean Dyche’s side ahead five minutes after the half hour mark, as all the goals were accounted for before the first period was over, sealing the fate of the Cottagers before the break.
As the game progressed, the uphill task of making progress on the tie was clearly too much for Fulham to manage as the chance to remain in the EPL simply slipped away from the London club. Hard as they tried, they could not unlock the Burnley defence and ultimately slumped to another telling loss.
The defeat immediately completes the relegation trio for the 2020/2021 campaign with Fulham joining already relegated Sheffield United and West Bromwich Albion. It implies that Southampton, Brighton and Newcastle along with Burnley can now breathe easy, at least for this season while Fulham drop back just after climbing up.
Before that drop, Fulham has to complete their schedule of matches with a trip to the south coast to take on Southampton, while Burnley host Leeds United at Turf Moor on Saturday, May 15.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
