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The feel-good factor at Craven Cottage has already gone missing for Fulham, and results never felt the benefit.
Ahead of this weekend’s visit from Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth, the west Londoners reside in the relegation zone having won just a single game from the opening nine match days.
An inability to keep the opposition from scoring has seen the ball picked out of their net 25 times, six more than the next worst defence in fellow promoted side Cardiff, and leaving Slavisa Jokanovic’s side with the joint-worst goal difference overall.
Even with all the money spent in the transfer window and putting the play-off bonus to what seemed like good use, Fulham are seriously struggling to get results over the line.
When they gained promotion back to the big time at the expense of Aston Villa at Wembley in May, thanks to a single goal from Tom Cairney, there was little to argue that the Cottagers did not deserve promotion after missing out on automatically going up by just two points.
In the club’s 2017/18 season, Fulham were much admired for the attacking style Jokanovic adopted, seeing the club lauded for playing the most attractive football in the Championship.
Even despite a slow burning start to the season that left the Whites in the lower half of the table and fearing a possible relegation fight, a mid-season revival aided by a flurry of action in the transfer market saw the 139-year-old club span a run of 23 games unbeaten after winning just seven in the opening 22.
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Certainly, the Serbian coach’s loan deal to see fellow Serb Aleksander Mitrovic join the club played its part with the 24-year-old netting 12 times in his 20 appearances at the Cottage.
Altogether, Fulham were able to put together 79 goals across the season, seeing their flowing attacking football net the second most of any side bar the Championship-winning Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Signing the likes of Mitrovic to a permanent deal and adding Andre Schurrle on loan from Borussia Dortmund, Alfie Mawson from Swansea and Jean Seri from Nice it looked like Jokanovic had built a solid mid-table top flight team before a ball had been kicked.
What Fulham needed to capitalise on having flushed £98million on transfers was the feel-good factor winning the Championship play-off final would have brought to the club.
Take Huddersfield as the most recent example, having edged Reading 4-3 on penalties back in May 2017 the West Yorkshire side strengthened where necessary and like Fulham converted the loan deal of a key player, Aaron Mooy, into a permanent move.
Immediately, David Wagner’s men won the opening two matches of the Premier League season as they saw off Crystal Palace 3-0 before beating Newcastle at home.
A few draws followed against Southampton, Leicester and Burnley and a few losses were dealt thanks to West Ham, Tottenham and Swansea, but Wagner’s south coast side remained a threat and at this point last season shocked Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United by beating the reigning Europa League champions.
Before Huddersfield, Hull won their opening two matches of the season following winning the play-off final, and Norwich before them were able to hold Liverpool to a 1-1 draw at Anfield on the back of two wins in five.
Andre Schurrle has been able to bring a touch of brilliance to the Fulham attack from time to time, with his goal last weekend in Cardiff a glimpse of what he can produce.
That brilliance needs to come out more and more if survival is to be acquired, for the Craven Cottage side is so lacklustre in defence that the opposition can have a field day without request, just ask Arsenal and Cardiff.
A first-half display at home against the Gunners showed it is not impossible for the squad to keep the opposition out for long periods of play, but come the second half all that hard work proved irrelevant as Unai Emery’s side showed the difference in class and hammered home four times despite having fewer than half as many shots.
Injuries have caused rotation upon rotation at the back but the experience of Maxime Le Marchand and Calum Chambers has not been there to see, allowing even Cardiff to pick away at the Whites backline despite scoring just four goals in eight games previously.
Sort out the defence and Fulham can start to move up the table and secure their place in the Premier League for next season, but the club should never have been in this position having arrived in such fashion.
Even though Cardiff edged the London club to automatic promotion, the Welsh side should have performed as they have so far for they did not strengthen adequately in order to adapt to Premier League life and kept a Championship level roster.
Championship-winning Wolves, meanwhile, are certainly showing what is possible when you prepare correctly and play with a solid backline, conceding the fifth lowest number of goal in the league.
It can always be argued that it is better to have a firing frontline and no defence than vice versa for the defensive side can be easier to work on, but when the issues appear so fundamental at Craven Cottage it is hard to see how Jokanovic can put things right.
Luckily the January window is no longer that far away and defensive support can, and must, be brought in, but between now and then are 11 games and Fulham must perform in to stand a chance of avoiding a relegation fight.