Mundo Deportivo: Arbeloa's Fulham Start with Three Straight Defeats, Facing Relegation Curse and Dressing Room Division

According to Mundo Deportivo, Arbeloa faced significant pressure while managing Real Madrid last season before moving to Fulham, but the team has made a poor start and has already fallen into the relegation zone.

After his coaching spell at Real Madrid ended, Arbeloa moved to Fulham. The Premier League club gave him significant authority over transfers, allowing him to bring in several youth players from the Real Madrid academy system whom he knew well from his time with Castilla. However, the English side's start to the season has not gone as hoped, with three defeats in the first three league matches and little encouragement from previous performances.

In the opening match of the season, Fulham failed to take even a single point from Chelsea at home. The Blues secured three points through goals from Joao Pedro, Morgan Rogers and Palmer, which cancelled out goals from King and Gonzalo Garcia. Despite that result, the team's performance and a subsequent League Cup victory over League Two side Wimbledon allowed the Cottagers to maintain a limited sense of optimism for a time.

However, concerns increased after Fulham lost away to Sunderland at the Stadium of Light in the second round, with Isidor's goal leaving Arbeloa's team still without a point after two matches. The situation did not improve after returning to Craven Cottage, where Fulham twice took the lead through goals from King and Cesar Palacios but were eventually held to a draw by Crystal Palace. After three rounds, the team dropped into the relegation zone and sat second from bottom.

If the poor start was not concerning enough, one statistic appears to have dealt a major blow to the former Real Madrid coach's plans: every time Fulham have started a league campaign with three consecutive defeats, the team has ultimately been relegated, in the 1951-52 and 2020-21 seasons respectively. In addition, the crisis has now extended to signs of division inside the dressing room, with Smith Rowe and Iwobi having deleted Fulham-related photos from their Instagram accounts, a move interpreted as dissatisfaction with the current situation.