Fulham relegated to the Championship after 4-1 defeat to Watford

Fulham are the second side to be relegated from the Premier League after a 4-1 thumping at the hands of Watford. Huddersfield Town were already confirmed as down after their 2-0 defeat to Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Abdoulaye Doucoure open the scoring for the Hornets in the 23rd minute, Ryan Babel struck back for the visitors ten minutes later to keep them in the Premier League for the time being. Three second-half strikes from Will hughes, Troy Deeney and Kiko Femenia secured three points for the home side and meant that the Cottagers would be relegated from the Premier League with five games left.

It has been a very tough season for the newly promoted side which has seen them tally 17 points up to this point. Since the turn of the year, Fulham have failed to pick up a single point in the league. The last time the Cottagers collected points was during the Christmas period as they picked up five points out a possible nine during that period.

This season alone has seen the team have three managers at the club. At the start of the season Fulham were under the manager that got them into the Premier League, Slavisa Jokanovic but, three months after the club being in the top division of English football and after poor performances in the opening half of the season the club decided to sack Jokanovic in November.

Fulham rolled the dice in a bid to save their Premier League status by securing the managerial services of Claudio Ranieri in November. But in February they sacked Ranieri and hired ex-Fulham player Scott Parker who is still managing the club at present.

The only big name that Fulham added to their ranks in January was the signing of Ryan Babel from Besiktas and since January, Babel has featured 11 times for the Cottagers and has netted three goals for the London based club.

Club top goalscorer Aleksandar Mitrovic has netted ten goals this season, which is an astonishing 1/3 of the total goals the club has scored this season. With the clubs defence at main fault due to the amount of goals the Cottagers have conceaded, a huge amount of 76 goals giving the a -46 goal difference, worse than last place Huddersfield with the Terriers having a -41 goal difference.

After only 33 games in the top flight, the Cottagers time in the Premier League will be coming to an end in three matches time with Fulham’s final five fixtures being Everton at home (13th April), Bournemouth away (20th April), Cardiff at home (27th April), Wolves away (4th May). With their final match being at home as they host Newcastle on the 12th May.