West Bromwich Albion and Leeds United fans are convinced that Fulham has retired from the automatic promotion race after Aleksandar Mitrovic was hit by a ban.
After Albion’s defeat at Brentford on Friday night, all eyes were on the second top 4 duel of the weekend Fulham traveled to Leeds.
The hosts secured a comprehensive 3-0 win and overtook Albion in the table, while Fulham remained seven points behind Slaven Bilic’s side after slipping to fifth place.
There are seven games left to define the promotion picture, but Fulham have to do without top scorer Mitrovic for three of them.
The striker, who has scored 23 times this season, has been suspended by the FA for three games because of an elbow against Leeds defender Ben White.
The act was not punished by the officials, but Mitrovic was found guilty of the violent conduct on Monday.
A statement said: “Fulham FC’s Aleksandar Mitrovic has been suspended for three games after the EFL Championship game between Leeds United FC and Fulham FC on Saturday 27 June 2020.
“The striker admitted that his behavior in or around the third minute of the game had violated FA Rule E1 (a) and was violent in an incident that was not seen by the game officials but was recorded on video.”
Albion and Leeds fans believe the incident has met all of the hopes that Scott Parker’s team had to close the gap between the first two.
One said on social media: “Fulham will be out of the top 2 race if they come to the Hawthorns [July 14], they’ll keep an eye on the playoffs, that’s good news as long as we get at least seven points out of the next nine. “
“And with that, all of Fulham’s hopes of catching us and the WBA have vanished,” said another. “It’s two out of three to go up automatically now.”
A third added: “Mitrovic banned. (Rightly). Now between Leeds WBA and Brentford. May the best teams win!”
“Good, deserved,” said a follower. “Fulham probably also cost a place in the playoffs.”
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