LONDON, Sept 13 — Scott Parker believes his newly promoted Fulham need to dip into the transfer market to strengthen their squad as they look to avoid dropping straight back down to Engand's second-tier.

Fulham, who were promoted after winning the Championship playoff final against Brentford last season, are being tipped as one of the favourites to get relegated, as they were in 2018-19 after having also been promoted via the playoffs.

The London club were thrashed 3-0 by Arsenal in their season opener on Saturday and Parker — who has already signed Antonee Robinson, Mario Lemina, Harrison Reed, Anthony Knockaert and Alphonse Areola — believes more additions are necessary.

“I think we all realise when you step up from the Championship to the Premier League it is a massive jump,” said Parker. “We have seen it in spurts today what that quality is.”

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“For us to evolve we need to bring players into this team that are going to improve us. That's our aim.”

“Obviously in the short space, we have brought players in, but still there are the people in the background doing all they can to help us, the team and the club.”

Parker, 39, had previously said there would be no wholesale changes to the squad that sealed promotion, while the club's director Tony Khan said they did not need to spend heavily to be competitive. — Reuters

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