FULHAM EXCEL WHERE WEST BROM FAIL

West London side Fulham have excelled where West Brom failed after they secured promotion back to the Premier League after the first time of asking. Fulham and West Brom were relegated from the English top flight at the end of last season alongside Sheffield United, but the Baggies have not been able to secure an instant return to Premier League football.

West Brom ended their Premier League campaign last season with Sam Allardyce in charge after the ex-England national team manager replaced the sacked SlavenBilic in December 2020.Allardyceis known as a specialist when it comes to keeping teams  in the Premier League, but he was unable to keep West Brom in the Premier League last season despite having a lot of games to do the job. He left the Baggies at the end of last season and they turned to Frenchman Valerien Ismael who has surprisingly taken Barnsley to the Championship playoffs last  season before they were beaten by Welsh team Swansea City in the playoff semifinals.

Ismael made a bright start to his managerial career at West Brom before things fell apart around the winter time of this season. He was sacked and replaced by the experienced Steve Bruce, but the poor run of  results recorded in the latter weeks of the Ismael era continued under Bruce thus preventing the club from securing at least a place in the Championship playoffs.

Unlike West Brom, Fulham have sealed an instant return to the Premier League by picking one of the two automatic promotion spots thanks to the 3-0 home win over Preston North End last week Tuesday. After the 1-1 draw at second-placed Bournemouth at the weekend, the Cottagers are closing in on winning the Championship title.

Sheffield United were the third team to suffer relegation from the Premier League last season and they are on course to seal a playoff spot ahead of the final two games in the regular season as far as English Championship football is concerned.