Five curses that Fulham are yet to break

Turf Moor was far from our final hoodoo...

Most Premier League fans probably didn’t take too much notice of Fulham’s 3-2 win at Burnley, in fact the biggest talking point from neutrals was ire at Sky for daring to put a non top six team in the Saturday 5.30pm TV slot.

However, knowing that Fulham are woeful at Turf Moor is part of the Fulham 101 alongside a penchant for cheeseboards, and the lyrics to Can’t Take My Eyes Off You. As you no doubt know, we hadn’t won at Burnley’s historic stadium since 1951, we had an entire reign of Queen Elizabeth II in that time.

In recent years, several curses have been successfully broken. Last Boxing Day we finally won at Stamford Bridge for the first time since the late 70s and in 2021 we claimed a first ever league win at Goodison Park.

So which curses remain? We have a look at five that Fulham still need to overcome.

1) Arsenal (away)

Given that they’re the league leaders, it may be tricky to break this any time soon, but Fulham are yet to win away at Arsenal in their history, a run that stretches all the way back to 1904 when the gunners were playing their football in Woolwich.

The closest we’ve come in recent years was back in 2021 when Scott Parker’s Fulham so nearly nicked a 1-0 win behind closed doors, but Eddie Nketiah’s 90th minute goal meant that we’ve still never come away from the red half of North (or South-East) London with three points.

2) Manchester City

Photo: Adam Farquharson

Fulham’s run against Manchester City is embarrassingly bad. 19 consecutive defeats in all competitions, a run stretching all the way back to 2011.

Of course, we were a whisker away from breaking that sequence only a couple of weeks ago during the nutty 5-4 defeat. You could argue that the curse is actually playing against a Pep Guardiola side; he’s won all 14 of the 14 games he’s managed against Fulham.

Maybe next time if we avoid going 5-1 down, we might have a better chance of finally getting that elusive draw.

3) Coventry City

Games between Coventry City and Fulham are incredibly rare. 2021/22 was the first time we’ve been in the same league as the Sky Blues since 1967, and in that time there was only a pair of League Cup games in 1982, which Coventry City won on away goals.

Given that in 21/22 Fulham were all conquering and Coventry finished in mid-table, it was a little surprising that the midlanders actually did the double over us, in some style too. A miserable 4-1 defeat in the rain up at the Ricoh was followed by a 3-1 gubbing at the Cottage in the spring.

As a result, it means that Fulham haven’t tasted victory over Cov in 58 years. With Frank Lampard’s side looking primed for promotion back to the Premier League, next season could be a good opportunity to break another unwanted record.

4) Unai Emery

Photo Credit: Aleksandr Osipov

Fulham’s record against Pep Guardiola probably goes down as the most extreme, but Unai Emery is another boss that loves facing Fulham.

The Spaniard has managed eight games against us and won all of them. Two were while he was in charge of Arsenal in 2018/19 and then since he’s taken the reigns at Aston Villa we are on a run of 0 for 6 against his team.

5) A major trophy

Of course, the biggest curse that hangs over Fulham is the fact that we’ve never won a (major) trophy in our 146-year history.

What probably makes it worse is that we’ve only actually had two real opportunities to do so. The 1975 FA Cup final when Alec Stock’s second division side were outclassed by West Ham United at Wembley and then the heartbreaking 2010 Europa League final defeat as Diego Forlan’s deflected shot denied Fulham in Hamburg.

With Crystal Palace breaking their duck earlier this year, it’s left ourselves, Brighton and Watford arguing over who is the biggest club in England without a trophy.

Let’s hope that the dream of ending this particular curse can move a step closer on Wednesday in the Carabao Cup quarters.