Fulham (Away) 01.03.2026

Refereeing is continuing to be incredibly questionable with what happens one week and leads to a goal being disallowed it perfectly OK the next week.  A ball from the right was put into the middle where Jiminez pushed Dragusin with two hands in his back.  The ball went over them and was knocked back into the middle by Bobb where Wilson volleyed in from the six yard line.  Whereas Randal Kolo Muani’s “goal” last week was ruled out for a push that was less than this one, Fulham’s goal was allowed to stand.  It was Ekitike on Romero all over again.  There are a few things that sometimes can be missed, but when you have VAR looking at it, there is no reason to miss it or to interpret it differently.  When referees are not accountable for their decisions and don’t have to explain them, then the only conclusion that you can come to is that they are inept at what they are supposed to be there for.  When the same incident happens week after week with different outcomes someone in the boys club that is PGMOL needs to do something about it and this “high bar” for incidents in the penalty area obviously doesn’t apply when the offence leads to a goal.

The game went flat and it took until the fifteenth minute for Tottenham to threaten the Fulham goal when a corner came out to Pedro Porro in the D, but the rising ball was sliced over the top.  Soon after a scramble in the Tottenham box ended with Tete scuffing a shot just wide of Guglielmo Vicario’s left hand post.  Spurs came close with a shot on target when Dragusin hacked away a ball from the right touchline and Leno had to make sure he got back on his line to hold it, but then Tottenham played Kolo Muani into the box, but he was thwarted by a timely tackle from Diop.  

Allowing Fulham so much space in midfield, it was perhaps unsurprising that a second goal came in the 34th minute.  Iwobi played the ball into Wilson five yards outside the box, took the return pass with a first-time side-foot that went in off Vicario’s right hand post to make it 2-0.  Tottenham needed to respond and respond quickly.

Porro and Kolo Muani battled to keep hold of the ball on our right wing, with the ball eventually played back to Yves Bissouma whose shot was deflected wide for a corner.  Another followed soon after, needlessly conceded by Jiminez, with Dragusin volleying over from eight yards out.  Another corner was won with Kolo Muani and Palhinha both having shots blocked inside the box.  Just before half-time, Bassey curled a low ball into the box that bounced just in front of Vicario, which the Spurs keeper grabbed at the second opportunity.  Vic was hauled down by Berge at a Fulham corner (no free-kick given to Spurs as you would expect) and Bassey dug a volley into the ground that bounced over the bar from six yards out.

Early in the second half, Bassey pushed Kolo Muani over.  No intent in playing the ball.  No foul.  Then Micky van de Ven pushes over a Fulham player from behind 20 yards from goal with two hands in the back.  Free-kick to Fulham … fair enough, but no different to what happened in the lead up to their first goal.  Or what happened to Randal moments earlier.

Five minutes into the half, Palhinha had the ball taken off him by Bobb who came infield from the left, but played the ball outside him to the left where Smith-Rowe bumbled a shot wide across Vicario and wide of the far post when he should have got it on target.  Spurs should have got a goal back when they actually pressed very well to win the ball as the home side tried to play out from the keeper, but Gallagher’s ball across goal wasn’t touched by Solanke at the near post and there was nobody beyond him to put the ball into an empty net.  Randal chased a ball into the box which he got to first, with Diop knocking him over without playing the ball but VAR deemed it no penalty.

At the other end, Micky made a great block when Bobb pulled a ball back for Jiminez in the box, but the Spurs skipper’s intervention took the effort wide.  Diop got a yellow card for blocking Richarlison running after a long pass, but Tottenham were indebted to Vicario for keeping them in with the slimmest chances of getting anything out of the game when Smith-Rowe was put on a free run on goal and the Tottenham goalie did well to block his shot off for a corner.  Micky picked up  booking for needlessly taking out Jiminez after the ball had gone.

Spurs got back in the game when substitute Mathys Tel did well down the right, showing good footwork, before passing to the over-lapping Archie Gray, who did well to keep the ball in and stand up a cross to the far post, where Richarlison was left free to nod the ball in to reduce the deficit.  Bassey was holding onto the ball as Richi tried to get the game restarted quickly, but the referee was consistent in mis-reading the situation and booked both players.

Tel did well again, but this time his cross was blocked and as the game entered the last twenty minutes, Cairney drove a shot wide from just outside the box through a crowded area and then Iwobi skied an effort from the same position, while Solanke did well to win a corner at the Fulham end, although it came to nothing.  Spurs had a good chance two minutes from time when Porro spread the play to the left for Souza to advance into the box and drag the ball back, with Pap Matar Sarr getting to it ahead of Tete at the near post and putting a left foot into the side-netting.

With a late corner to Tottenham being cleared to the back of the penalty area, Palhinha retrieved it, his arm was being held by Bassey and when the Spurs midfielder was pulled to the floor, with Bassey going with him,, guess which way the free-kick went ?  Yep.  Fulham’s and Porro was booked for protesting, but what is the point with the nonsensical decisions referees give.  It is not inexperience, as they wouldn’t have got this far in the game, but you wonder how they have got this far, as their decision making is so poor even when they have another go through VAR.

In a frenzied last couple of minutes of added time.  Souza played the ball into Archie Gray in the area, but he couldn’t hold onto it and a free-kick dropped eventually for Palhinha, whose shot was blocked.

It would help if we weren’t two goals behind before we started playing and we can’t keep relying on other team’s results as we need to get a win, which we haven’t done since the back end of December.  It is now March and Thursday’s match against Palace is one of the games we have to win to start any hope of recovery.  It is damning that Richarlison’s goal was our first effort on target.  The team look shattered and lacking in confidence, but Souza and Tel made a big difference when they came on.  

It’s not like we are getting the bounce of the ball or refereeing decisions, so we are going to have to make it happen ourselves.  And that means being on it from the first whistle, but the way things are going at the moment, it is not looking likely that this side will blow away any opposition.

• This loss equalled Tottenham’s longest winless streak in the Premier League of 10 consecutive games without a win between January and March 1994 when Ossie Ardiles was manager.
• Igor Tudor became the second Spurs manager to lose their first two Premier League games after Martin Jol in November 2004.