Norwich City Sack Manager Chris Hughton Ahead of Fulham Match

Fulham have been something of a bogey team for Norwich City. Norwich has never defeated Fulham in the Premier League. They haven't defeated Fulham in any competition since 1986. I was nine years old. That's a long time. Norwich are in a horrible situation. After their match with Fulham, their run in looks like this: Liverpool at home, Manchester United away, Chelsea away, Arsenal at home. Good luck with that. If Fulham can defeat them, they'll be only two points back with a much easier run in.

Do you believe in a new manager bounce? Personally, I don't. What we call the bounce is usually just regression to the mean. Unless the manager is performing so awful that a new one can be a great improvement, you'll usually just see a team go back to their true talent level after a particularly poor spell. Fortunately for Fulham the mean for Norwich just isn't that high. By goal differential they are the third worst team in the league, and I think the sample is large enough to say they just aren't that good. Adams only has a week to prepare the squad. In my opinion this is good for the club.

This game was already big for Fulham. A win gives them real hope of staying up. If they can stay ahead of Sunderland and Cardiff, it puts real pressure on Swansea City and West Brom to win. Not to mention the pressure that Norwich will be feeling. I still think we're more likely than not to drop. But I have hope, and I'll be screaming and supporting the team as loudly as I can in person the next two weeks. It's quite possible that when I touch down in Seattle, Fulham are in a much better position.

What do you think? Does this help Fulham, hurt Fulham, or have no effect?