Faltering Fulham making securing European football next season a major challenge

Fulham’s European football hopes are faltering after their 3-1 loss to Everton at Craven Cottage on Saturday.

The Whites have taken six points from as many Premier League matches – a return which is never going to be enough to add an extra competition for them to compete in next season.

Arguably Marco Silva’s side needed to win their final three matches against the Toffees, Brentford and Manchester City to really put themselves in a strong position for eighth place.

And now it may be that the best that the west London club can hope for is to damage Brentford’s prospects on Saturday and prevent their neighbours from playing in Europe for the first time in their history.

If Palace win the FA Cup against Manchester City next weekend then even eighth is unlikely to be good enough to qualify for the Conference League.

Fulham had the perfect start at the weekend with Raul Jimenez heading home from Emile Smith Rowe’s cross.

But they went on to miss some other chances when they had the upper hand and were made to pay when Vitaliy Mykolenko levelled on the stroke of half-time.

Michael Keane headed home from a corner kick which was poorly defended by the hosts before Beto killed off the contest.

“It is the story of the last three or four games,” said Portuguese boss Silva. “Goals have come from set-pieces. We have to be willing to fight, do our job well and we didn’t. It’s about concentration and focus. We have to blame ourselves because it didn’t happen before but it did in the last few weeks.

“We were the best team on the pitch, the first 30, 35 minutes was the level we want. Last 10 minutes we started to lose some of the main things we had to be in control of the game.

“The moments that we lost the focus and concentration played a big part on the game.”

Asked about Fulham’s prospects of qualifying for Europe, Silva said: “We have to correct the things which happened with us in the last three or four games. In these decisive moments of the season, if you want to be there fighting you cannot lose concentration. Two big games for us [coming up].”

Fulham have dropped to 11th in the table.

They have dropped 28 points from winning positions this season – the most in the top flight along with relegated Southampton.

Silva will have one year left on his Whites deal after this summer and has been linked with Al-Hilal. The Saudi club signed Aleksandar Mitrovic from Fulham in August 2023 for a club record fee.

“For me it is very clear, the focus is on what I can control and what we can control as a football club,” said Silva. “When you do good things, it is normal with this type of speculation and it is not something I talk or think about it.

“The most important thing as always is Fulham Football Club.”

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