The next 10 games could define Fulham’s season

Despite protests from pockets of “proper football men” to the contrary, it absolutely does matter what order you play the 38 games of a Premier League season – and the next 10 are perhaps the most important.

Our first seven fixtures have brought just two defeats, and it was at one point our best start in two decades. But if we played Manchester City away immediately after our opening day defeat to Manchester United, it’s safe to say our confidence would’ve been in a bit of a tailspin and we’d certainly not be sat on 11 points right now.

Thankfully however, the mythical fixture supercomputer was smarter than that, and we are sat comfortably in the top half of the table. Our points-per-game tally of 1.6 would put us on about 60 points come May if we kept it up, and the next 10 fixtures – taking us up to Christmas – will go some way to indicating if we’re on course for a special season or not.

A tough return

We start this run at the Cottage, which is a definite plus. However, Aston Villa are going great guns under Unai Emery, and their recent win against Bayern Munich will live long in the memory. But the Champions League this ain’t, and we’ll be looking to inflict Villa’s second loss of the season – or, more conservatively, we may be happy with a point.

A favourable run

Next up is a four-game run that could see us steadily climb the table if we play our cards right. Goodison Park used to be a bogey ground for us, but in recent years we’ve tasted a lot of success. Everton just can’t get things right under Sean Dyche, and we could say goodbye to the Toffees’ old ground with at least a point.

Then it’s the derby against Brentford, who despite continued media fawning, aren’t the side they were, losing three and conceding double figures already this term. We should be going for the jugular here and bagging a W against our noisy neighbours.

After that, we have two games against sides battling the drop. Crystal Palace under Oliver Glasner are in a bit of a free-fall. They’re yet to pick up a win and sit in the relegation zone. Three points would go nicely alongside Joachim Andersen in the list of things we’ve taken from the Eagles of late.

Wolves have been the pits this season and have picked up just one point, shipping a whopping 21 goals. There’s no excuse for anything other than three points when they come to the Cottage at the end of November.

A barren spell?

If we can bag a decent haul in that four-game glut it would stand us in good stead heading into December, as we have a tricky set of fixtures to contend with. Spurs away has been a stinker for us for years – our last win was 11 years ago when Dimitar Berbatov scored the only goal of the game. We did grab a point in 2021 under Scott Parker, mind.

We should be looking for a point at home against Brighton and their hipster manager, but I doubt we’ll get anything against Arsenal, despite our result last term and despite the fact that half our side will have a point to prove against their former employers – and there’ll be no Reiss Nelson off the bench. Liverpool at Anfield midway through the month will likely yield similar meagre results.

A Christmas gift?

Southampton at the Cottage just before we sit down for our Christmas dinners could prove to be a festive treat. They’re the third side currently occupying the bottom three that we have in this run and have only picked up a point at the time of writing, against Ipswich. I for one am looking for a Christmas cracker here.

By this point, we could have 23 points on the board if we’re being conservative, and perhaps even 28 if we’re feeling optimistic. The latter would put us on course for our best ever top flight finish. After what we’ve seen so far this season, that definitely feels achievable.