16 March 2025
Fulham 2 Tottenham 0
It was a London derby at Craven Cottage as Fulham welcomed Tottenham. How the tables have turned for these two teams, not only do The Cottagers look like they will finish above the North London outfit for the first time in the Premier League, Marco Silva’s side have their sights set on European qualification still. If Spurs want that, they will need to win the Europa League.
Iwobi picked the ball up on the right flank and had plenty of time to pick the right cross into the penalty area. He was looking for Jimenez at the back post but as the Mexican felt a slight push from the defender, he theatrically threw himself in the air. It looked like something from the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan on the Normandy beaches.
Marco Silva was not happy with what he had seen at all. As he raced to the touchline, he started to tell his striker what he thought of his antics. It was refreshing to see a Premier League manager act this way, usually we are used to seeing the likes of Mikel Arteta having a hissy fit with the fourth official as to why they had not been given a penalty.
Tottenham just could not deal with Iwobi. He was skipping past defenders like they were not there. He played a speculative pass into the box, which was blocked by a Spurs’ defender dangling a leg out. The issue with this was that it just laid it on a plate for the advancing Castagne. However, his resulting shot was poor and made for an easy save for Vicario.
Ange Postecoglou must be numb to these drab performances from his team by now. The human body is a wonderous thing and will build tolerances to things you subject it to regularly. That may well save the Australian’s life in the long run. His side had barely ventured into the Fulham half for the entirety of the game as both teams trudged off at the interval.
Giving a half-time team-talk to these Tottenham players must be like berating twenty clinically deaf people with no one there to translate your words into sign language. It is like a reoccurring theme for Spurs, pundits claim there is so much quality in this squad but even a revolving door policy on their managers has not been able to find one who can motivate them.
After the break, Tottenham actually made themselves an attacking threat for the first time in the game. Bergvall managed to work some space for himself out wide before lifting a cross into the box. It was perfectly-weighted for Solanke to attack it with a header. Sadly for the travelling fans, his effort narrowly went the wrong side of the post.
Tel cut inside onto his left foot outside the box before trying to curl one in the far corner. Leno beat it away but Maddison improvised well as he chested the rebound into the path of Solanke. Incredibly, he sent his volley over the crossbar when he had a completely empty goal to aim at. That pretty much summed up Tottenham’s season so far ironically.
Things got a little scrappy for the visitors as they started to give the ball away unnecessarily. One such instance saw a pass strike the back of Maddison’s heels and set Smith Rowe away. As the cross came in, Vicario threw himself at it to punch clear. It dropped to Willian outside the box, who got it under control, before trying to bend one in the far corner. It missed by the narrowest of margins.
At this point, Fulham were looking the most dangerous of the two teams. As they continued to try and work a shooting opportunity in the middle, Pereira laid it off into the path of Muniz. He swept the ball into the bottom corner as Craven Cottage erupted. With just over ten minutes remaining, The Cottagers had finally managed to find the breakthrough.
Leno played a long ball over the top of the Spurs defence and Davies dealt with it poorly. He allowed substitute Sessegnon to win it, before curling a shot into the top corner of the goal. The player that Tottenham released in the summer had come back to haunt them. It was no more than Fulham had deserved, they had been the better team over the course of the match.
The win moved Fulham up to eighth in the Premier League table. That leaves them only four points off a Champions League place, what an achievement that would be for the West London outfit. That said, Marco Silva is a realist. He knows their target is to try and get into the Europa League. If he can keep his side focussed on trying to win as many games as they can between now and the end of the season, anything is possible.
Postecoglou must be relived for the international break, meaning he does not have to field awkward questions from the media for a couple of weeks. He must be so tired of trying to find answers for why his players fail to perform so often. It can be nothing more than a mentality thing. This squad have no desire for what it means to play for the club and certainly no passion to fight for points.
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