Positives & Negatives: Fulham 2-0 Tottenham Hotspur
Jack Stroudley looks back at our final match before the international break.
What a way to sign off that was! Fulham ran out 2-0 winners over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday to climb up to eighth and continue to make the latter stages of the season interesting. Late goals from Rodrigo Muniz and Ryan Sessegnon were the difference in SW6 with Fulham now three games unbeaten against Spurs. I’m sure I’m not the only one with a smile on my face and a spring in my step, but what are the main talking points from Sunday?
Positives
Silva’s super subs
Fulham were in control for large portions of the game but as the clock continued to run down it felt like it was going to be another game that would get away from us. Marco Silva’s shown on multiple occasions this season his ability to be proactive and use our bench to swing the pendulum in our favour – we saw another example of that on Sunday. Rodrigo Muniz will receive many of the plaudits for being his usual bullish self, throwing himself about, providing an option and rounding off a fantastic cameo with the opening goal.
But one man we have to talk about is Ryan Sessegnon, a tear shed as Sess rolled back the years scoring at the Hammy End. Just seconds after coming on, Sess showed such desire to win the ball off Ben Davies and once again demonstrated clinical nature in front of goal to seal the game. Sessegnon has shown in recent weeks his composure in the final third and will give Silva a major selection headache. Tom Cairney also deserves credit for keeping things ticking and adding a well needed spark in attack. Marco Silva got it spot on.
Astute Andreas
In terms of a standout individual performance I think that Andreas Pereira deserves immense credit for his performance on Sunday. I kept finding myself at the AMEX saying to those around me that we were missing Sasa Lukic, this wasn’t the case on the Thames. Seeming to win the ball back on numerous occasion, keep things ticking and round off a brilliant performance with an assist for Muniz’s goal.
The main question is will he keep his place when Lukic returns from suspension? For me the answer is yes, but not in Lukic’s position. Emile Smith Rowe was once again largely ineffective and I think a spell out of the team could be good for our record signing, with Pereira playing further forward.
A professional performance
As I alluded to earlier, for large portions of the game it felt like it wasn’t going to be our day and two goals late on really showcased what Fulham deserved from this game. Tottenham were poor throughout, second to every ball and on the back foot throughout. Fulham were defensively sound with Calvin Bassey a brick wall at the back, limiting Ange Postecoglou’s side time and time again.
I’ve already spoke about Andreas Pereira’s performance but Sander Berge once again deserves immense credit for continuing to showcase that his transfer fee is looking more and more like a steal. Fulham now move to eighth and will go into a seismic FA Cup Quarter Final game against Crystal Palace with confidence in abundance, come on Fulham!
Negatives
If we hadn’t had won today then I’d have spoke about our toothless opening seventy minutes but that point is now redundant so nothing to report from me – onto Crystal Palace!
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