What a difference a week makes. Fulham have gone out of two competitions and underwhelmed – to use Timothy Castagne’s frank description from last night – against Everton. From dreaming of another final at Wembley, the Whites might have to consider the prospect of being dragged into the dogfight at the wrong end of the table – with Luton’s thumping win at Brighton lifting the Hatters out of the relegation zone. If Everton were to win their appeal against the ten point deduction imposed by the Premier League, things would get a hell of a lot tighter for Marco Silva’s side.

You can make a decent case for Fulham being unlucky in each of the three games we’ve witnessed in the last week but it comes down to a failure to find the back of the net. No team has drawn a blank in more Premier League games than the Whites – last night’s frustrating draw against Everton makes it a total of eleven games – and Silva’s side could have played until Saturday and still not found a way through Sean Dyche’s well-drilled defence.

Raul Jimenez might have missed a glorious chance to put the hosts ahead just before the break, but he was already troubled by a hamstring problem that brought his evening to an early end. The Mexican’s replacement Rodrigo Muniz might be a livewire around the training ground but he can’t be considered Premier League quality. The Brazilian, something a punt by Silva in his early days at the club as an understudy to Aleksandar Mitrovic, spurned a couple of guilt-edged opportunities including a header that he send straight into Jordan Pickford’s stomach when it seemed more straightforward to score.

Silva clearly doesn’t fancy Carlos Vinicius – and Fulham have spent the month seeking to send the former Benfica and Tottenham striker back to his homeland. The Cottagers have elected against recalling Jay Stansfield – and you can see the logic in keeping an in-form youngster playing regularly in the Championship – but the paucity of options up front is the responsibility of the Fulham board. Allowing Mitrovic to leave for Saudi Arabia after the season had started when the uncertainty had unsettled the squad over the summer was bad enough, but not bringing in a new centre forward has proven very damaging.

Last night’s game was the clearest example of how badly Fulham miss someone who could put the ball in the onion big. The home side enjoyed 70% possession and managed 25 shots at goal, but only six were on target. Two of those were splendid saves by Jordan Pickford but Silva’s side badly lacks a focal point up top and a killer instinct in the eighteen yard box. Silva has committed his future to the club, but he has been woefully ill-equipped left to tackle a second season in the top flight. The striker situation is discouraging, but what’s worse is that with Calvin Bassey and Alex Iwobi preparing for an Africa Cup of Nations quarter final, Fulham will down to the barest of bones for the trip to Burnley on Saturday.

Issa Diop’s own hamstring strain may require Tim Ream to be pressed into service at centre back, but there’s a lightness to the whole squad that meant Kristian Sekularac – a fine talent, who has proven his versatility in the under 21s since signing from Juventus – had to be drafted in to give Fulham a full complement of substitutes. The injuries should force Fulham into the transfer market now, but the time to strengthen Silva’s squad was last summer when the Whites could have built on last season’s top half finish.

Next up is a trip to Turf Moor, where Fulham always failure. Lose to Vincent Kompany’s side and will be no way of sugar-coating the fact that the Whites are sleepwalking the wrong way towards the relegation zone. It isn’t the end to the campaign that anyone would have envisaged and there’s enough quality in the squad to steer the ship to safer waters but a couple of shrewd signings and more considered custodianship would provide a real boost.