Fulham manager Marco Silva is not reading anything into Stoke City’s current league form, ahead of our meeting in the Emirates FA Cup on Sunday.
After a very promising start to the campaign, the Potters have drawn three and lost three of their last six outings, but Silva knows it would be foolish to read too much into that run.
“They started very well, a very good start to the competition for them, always in a very good position around the Play-Offs,” he said.
“The start was strong, playing good, you know when the club is in a good run, the environment or the atmosphere in that stadium is always a difficult place to go and to play, because the home support is very good.
“Of course, after they have been a bit down. Because the Championship is so demanding, it can happen. The last run is not the best, but looking at them, we don't look for the last run or whatever. We look for everything, and their quality as a club.
“Because if they want to look for our last run, it’s not so strong like it was one month ago. It’s up to us to react, it's up to us to respect them and to see that they have a quality side that is going to make our life really difficult.”
The same as every year, Silva is targeting as long a cup run as possible, insisting that even if he makes changes to his team, he does so with progression in mind.
“Very important for us,” he replied when asked what the FA Cup means to him. “I don't like really just to go by words, we have to prove it on the pitch. But yes, any time we start a competition like this one, we aim high and we want to arrive in the final stages.
“Of course, we have to be serious. And sometimes, people want to be serious, but they make seven or six changes for one game – these things are not related.
“Sometimes you have three games in a week. Other times, the players that have been on the bench really deserve a chance to prove their quality as well. And this is the way you can set all of them in the same page and to compete for the positions and make our group stronger.
“But definitely very serious. We didn't arrive – in the last four years and a half – in one final, I know, but we have been every single year, in one cup or the other, able to arrive in the Quarter-Finals, and we want more. And if you want more, it’s an opportunity for us.
“This season, we have arrived in the Quarter-Finals again in the Carabao Cup.
We lost a chance to play Semi-Finals in the last minute in the game against Newcastle. And we want to have at least the same type of run, to allow us to be in the final stages of the competition.
And for us to do it, we have to prove again our quality against a Championship side that is always very tricky to play.
“FA Cup is tricky, against a Championship side is very, very tricky to play, and we have to really respect them, and be humble enough to understand if we are not at our best level it’s going to be a very, very tough afternoon.
And that is our aim, really – to play good football, to be able to win the game, and to play the next one.”