Fulham USA: US Supporters club of Fulham FC

In the 2007-2008 season Fulham had their “Great Escape” to avoid relegation. Fulham closed out that campaign with three straight wins to finish even with Reading at 36 points and claim safety with a superior goal differential of -22 to -25.

There are a number of similarities between the two seasons:

• New managers were brought in mid-season
• The second half of both seasons started with Fulham in 19th place
• After the New Year’s Day match 2008 Fulham had 15 points and 2019 Fulham had 14
• The new year started with both teams 5 points from safety
• Both seasons saw Fulham lose in their opening FA Cup pairing to a team from the fourth tier of English football

In 2007-2008 Fulham were 6 points from safety with just five matches left, but they managed to win four of those matches to close what had been an 8 point gap with Reading. Fulham’s explosive finish earned 1/3rd of its points for entire season.

During the Great Escape, Fulham was never more than 6 points from...

With only 4 or 5 points currently separating Fulham from the relegation zone, it feels like with just a couple breaks Fulham could get out of relegation. However, when looking at point trends for this season and what would need to be done for the remaining games to stay up, things look grim.

Points Needed for Safety
In the past 10 years the average points for the top relegated team was 35 and the bottom safe team was 38. Based on projections from current form this season 37 points would see a team through to safety. So with those two data points, lets use 37 points as Fulham's goal for safety.

Fulham currently has 14 points with 17 matches to go. To get to 37 points Fulham will need 23 points over the rest of the season - 1.35 points per match.

Likelihood of Getting to Safety
Earning 1.35 PPM over the remaining 17 matches will be a tall order for Fulham. To put this into context, over the past 17 matches the teams that had the closest PPM to 1.35 were Wolverhampton...

Fulham is now less than a week away from playing in the Premier League again. The summer transfer window has been good for Fulham and the team certainly finished last season strong, but what are the typical prospects for a newly promoted team? What kind of odds are Fulham facing for long-term success?

Since 2000, there have been 54 promotions to the Premier League. Over that time span, 39% of teams were relegated back to the Championship after just one season. Three times since 2000 all three teams survived the first year, including all three promoted teams from last season. In the past 18 seasons there has never been a time when all three promoted teams went back down after just one season.

Percent of Teams Relegated After One Season

As the chart shows, Fulham is in the weakest position with 50% of Championship playoff winners heading back down after just one season in the Premier League.

Of course, we’d like to have more than just one season in...