Fulham 0-2 Burnley: Five Things We Learned

Fulham became the final team to be condemned to relegation from the Premier League after they fell to a 2-0 defeat to Burnley at Turf Moor on Monday evening.

Ashley Westwood struck what was the first blow in the hosts’ battle against the drop as he rolled home Matej Vydra’s centre. Chris Wood then continued his electric form as he thundered in a brilliant second goal to condemn the Whites to an instant relegation to the Championship.

Here are five things we learned from the game:

Fulham’s fight comes to an end

The relegation picture is now clear following Burnley’s win at Craven Cottage as Fulham join Sheffied United and West Bromwich Albion back in the Championship. Despite a revival between January and March, Scott Parker’s men have been destined for the drop for some time.

Five wins all season in simply not good enough for the London outfit and they have now lost six out of their last seven matches in the Premier League. With just three matches remaining in the top-flight, Fulham will surely hope to regain some pride in their closing few fixtures before their now-confirmed demotion.

Following relegation, Parker can now be backed at odds of 10/1 with Betfair to be the next Premier League manager to leave his post.

Not so home comforts

One of the main reasons behind Fulham’s drop back into the Championship has been their utterly woeful form at Craven Cottage. Indeed, the Londoners have only managed to win two matches on home soil in the Premier League all season long.

In fact, they have only managed to score more than one goal in a game at home on two occasions whilst they have drawn a huge 11 blanks. Considering that they have only played 17 games at home throughout the campaign, that really is shocking.

That lack of home potency was on display once again versus Burnley, once again failing to score and getting just three shots on target throughout the entire game.

Burnley bounce back

One side that could potentially have been joining the Whites in the second tier could even potentially have been Burnley. After all, the Clarets failed to win any of their opening seven matches of the campaign and sat 18th as recently as early December.

However, nine wins in the 25 games since has seen the Clarets ease themselves away from any relegation fears. Credit certainly has to go to Sean Dyche for that having masterminded a sixth consecutive campaign in the Premier League for the Lancashire outfit.

Wood continues hot form

One of the stars of Burnley’s and in fact the Premier League season as a whole has been Chris Wood. The New Zealand frontman netted his 12th league goal of the campaign at Craven Cottage with a brilliant strike.

With it, he continues his fantastic form having netted eight goals in as many league games since the start of March. He now has 50 goals for Burnley since his big-money move from Leeds United, an absolutely excellent count.

Prolific Westwood

Whilst Wood has certainly been in great form for the Clarets in recent weeks, his Burnley teammate Ashley Westwood has also certainly strung together some fantastic displays recently.

The former Aston Villa midfielder has now scored two in his last three league games having also scored in the 4-0 thumping of Wolves.  It is the same amount of goals that he had scored in his last 45 appearances in the competition.

Alongside Wood, Dyche will certainly hope that Westwood can once again star for the Clarets next season.

Match Report

Fulham: Areola (6); Robinson (6), Adarabioyo (6) (Loftus-Cheek (5), 74′), Andersen (6), Tete (6) (Maja (5), 54′); Anguissa (6), Lemina (6); Lookman (5), Cavaleiro (5); Cordova-Reid (5) (Onomah (5), 66′), Mitrovic (5).

Burnley: Pope (6); Taylor (6), Mee (6), Tarkowski (7), Lowton (7); Cork (6), Westwood (8), Brownhill (7); McNeil (6), Vydra (6) (Rodriguez (6), 67′), Wood (7) (Barnes (N/A), 85′).

Goals: Westwood (35′), Wood (44′)

Referee: David Coote

Yellow Cards: Anguissa (40′), Lemina (83′)

Red Cards: N/A