The reality that Fulham's safety felt assured pretty early into the Premier League campaign should not go unnoticed, especially considering how favoured they were to face a third successive relegation in August after promotion from the Championship.
Marco Silva was also the bookies' favourite to be sacked first and Aleksandar Mitrovic was expected to struggle to match his imperious goalscoring form in the second tier. Few can be blamed for having these pre-season assertions, the recent evidence of Fulham's Premier League performances were drastically poor, going down in 2021 with only 28 points, losing eight of their first 11 games.
The previous top-flight season was marginally worse in points in 2018/19, getting two fewer. But they conceded 81, losing 26 games out of 38, losing 11 out of 12 games between January and April.
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Thrown into the same mix as Norwich and West Brom, the cliched yo-yo clubs who drift in limbo between the Championship and Premier League, gaining euphoria with sometimes record-breaking promotions, mirrored by the soul-crushing disappointment of relegation. Marco Silva's ability, along with his players and staff, to overcome that has been one of the great surprises of this season.
Silva needed this season to go well in order to rebuild his reputation in England. A sacking in November of 2019 from Everton ended a troubled reign after a divisive exit from Watford where he gained praise. Silva had previously faced relegation with Hull in 2017, he could not afford a repeat with Fulham, a club that had looked incapable of competing in the league in recent years.
A mixture of smart recruitment, good profiling of players and a solid defensive base have made this season a relative breeze. Whilst credentials for the manager of the season may look towards Mikel Artera across London at the Emirates Stadium, with the dream of a title still alive and kicking, the job of Silva still comes above it. Fulham have not just survived, they have thrived, performing like a club who have been competing at this level for several years.
Although the turn of March has since seen a dip in performances and results, the bulk of Silva's important work was done before the World Cup break in November and just after, where a run of four straight wins over Crystal Palace, Southampton, Leicester and Chelsea got them over the 30-point mark with 16 games left to spare. Monday's tennis-like score of a 5-3 win over relegation-threatened Leicester put them in tenth place, six clear of Chelsea.
Recruitment is where Fulham have triumphed this season. Bernd Leno, Issa Diop, João Palhinha, Willian and Carlos Vinicius all started on Monday, with three of the five goals coming from Willian and Vinicius.
Palhinha has provided a calming presence in midfield, a technically gifted metronome allowing Fulham to not fully divert from the attacking style that won them the Championship last year. A type of midfielder many of the clubs within the league would have wanted to uncover.
Willian has proven to be a genius move, given many writing him off after a tough year at Arsenal, but the Brazilian has proven what a quality player he has been, a talent those at Stamford Bridge might wish they still had this season. An experienced presence that has probably benefited the younger talents like Harry Wilson looking to grow. This is a player who has won two league titles, been a key figure under some of the sport's best coaches and has offered flashes of brilliance to sparkle magic when needed.
Most importantly, Mitrovic's 11 goals might not rival Erling Haaland but have been an improvement on his previous struggles to translate consistent scoring in the Championship to Premier League. The great shame of Mitrovic's season is that his shameful behaviour at Old Trafford has hurt what should have been an overwhelmingly positive campaign for the Serbian.
Now of course, we are focusing on players rather than the managers themselves. That is the reality of football. For all we elevate the coaches to genius status, they do not have all the answers and require the players to enact their ideas on the pitch. The same applies to Arteta – who benefits from great talents like Gabriel Jesus, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard performing at their peak this season.
But the leadership and guidance are something that can be attributed to Fulham with Silva. The unspectacular nature of their year might raise eyebrows, but that is what is impressive and surprising about the narrative around Craven Cottage, that the fear of relegation has never truly materialised. They have outperformed clubs of bigger size and grander wealth, whilst also forming a solid platform to build on from next season.
Silva deserves to be named manager of the season for making this look so simple.
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