Fulham (Home) 29.11.2025

Sticking with the 4-2-2-2 formation that Thomas Frank put out against PSG in midweek, the enforced change saw Kevin Danso installed in place of the suspended Cristian Romero.  The defence was breached within four minutes, as Chukwueze went down their left wing, pulled a ball across outside the 18 yard line, it missed out Lucas Bergvall in the middle as he just couldn’t reach it and ran into the path of Tete, who drilled a shot at goal that deflected off Destiny Udogie past Guglielmo Vicario, who would have been well placed to save if it had gone straight through.  When things are going against you, you get little good luck.

Things got even worse two minutes later when Vic came out of his area to deal with a long through ball.  He took a touch towards the side-line, then tried to steady himself to play the ball up-field, but mis-hit the ball and it went about ten yards to King, who played it inside for Wilson to shoot into an empty goal.  It was calamitous, bringing choruses of boos from the South Stand, where the judges sit on these things.  And they were at it again when the Spurs keeper punched out a corner with Chukwueze collecting the ball and curling a shot that hit the post.

With the crowd baying for Spurs to play the ball forward, Danso looked for Richarlison with a ball through the middle, but it was always going to run through to their keeper, although we won a couple of corners halfway through the first half, nothing came from them and a couple of minutes later Archie Gray tried a shot.  It wasn’t hit cleanly and bobbled wide of the right hand post of the Fulham goal.  Spurs were being picked apart with direct balls forward by Fulham and when Chukwueze nicked the ball off Pedro Porro as they chased one, it looked odds on that it would be 3-0 as he only had Vicario to beat.  Thanks to captain Micky van de Ven that was avoided thanks to a marvellous turn of pace catching up the Cottager’s forward and then executing a perfect recovery tackle in the box.  It was another Ledley King/Robben moment.  At least there weren’t boos for that.

A free-kick on the half-hour was nodded up in the air by Palhinha and as Micky went for it, Andersen went down holding his face – as he often does.  Our skipper took exception to the implication that he had elbowed him and leaned over the prostrate central defender to tell him so, earning a booking for it.  Contrast and compare last Sunday’s game when Rice did the same to Simons.  No yellow card there.  If it had been for the elbow, then surely a later incident involving Jiminez should have had the same punishment (see below), but consistency is an attribute sorely lacking in refereeing these days.  van de Ven was in defensive action five minutes before half-time when he did well to get ahead of Jiminez to head the ball for a corner, when it seemed to be destined for the Fulham forward’s head.

Half-time and the customary booing accompanied the team off the pitch.

Spurs kicked off the second half looking more determined.  Almost immediately, Porro crossed from the right and Randal Kolo Muani took the ball down and hit a shot that was blocked by Bassey’s chest right in front of him.  A couple of corners brought no joy, other than forcing Leno to punch away an inswinger from Mohammed Kudus, but another Porro cross was met with the full meat of his forehead by Randal as he crouched down to put it narrowly wide of the near post.  Just before the hour, Tottenham did finally hit the back of the net, with Bergvall picking out a ball to Mo on the right hand corner of the area.  He controlled it with his chest and as the ball went into the area, smashed a left-foot shot high into the near top corner with Leno beaten by the sheer power of the effort. 

Frank had been planning a triple substitution before the goal and went ahead with it, taking off Richarlison, Gray and Palhinha to bring Rodrigo Bentancur, Wilson Odobert and Xavi Simons into the match.  Kolo Muani went close again, with a stretched leg poking the ball just wide and we got even closer with Kudus’ corner flicked on by Bergvall’s head to the far top corner where Jiminez headed it out. 

With nine minutes left, Danso launched along throw which dropped for Destiny to shoot, but it was blocked and ran to the right of the goal being won off a defender by Randal, who improvised a back-heel that went a foot wide in which was out last decent chance.  Cue more boos.

Giving any Premier League team a two-goal start gives you a mountain to climb, especially when things aren’t clicking just yet.  Having said that, some appalling refereeing by Attwell failed to help the game.  Of all the poor officials there are in the Premier League at the moment, he is rapidly becoming the worst of the bad bunch.  How many times did he tell Leno to speed up taking goal-kicks ?  It started in about the 20th minute, but it took another 71 minutes to book him for time-wasting (two minutes past the point in the match that we all had money on him pulling out the yellow card for it).  Does he really think that is the way to stop him ?  If he books him early on, then that stops it, otherwise he risks a second yellow, although a goalkeeper getting sent off for two yellows for time-wasting is about as likely as having a decent refereeing performance in the PL these days.  With all the time-wasting and substitutions, as well as a goal in the second half, how comes that he only added four minutes ?  It might have been that much if the Fulham players left the pitch at the nearest point instead of making the longest angled departure possible.     

And Attwell’s decision making is highly questionable, although nobody at the PGMOL will question his performance.  Booking Udogie when he slipped as he went in to challenge Tete for the ball was a joke and the “foul” that he booked Randal for at the end of the match meant that about half the players on the pitch should have been on a yellow.  Perhaps the most heinous decision he made was to allow Jiminez to escape with a talking to for throwing an elbow into Destiny’s face, after he had already poked Danso in the face.  One of the prime responsibilities of a referee is the ensure the safety of players.  We have seen over the last week players being sent off for throwing the elbow, so why is this example any different ?  It wouldn’t be the first time that the Fulham forward has been dismissed for it and then to book him for handball when he couldn’t reach a cross and tried to push the ball into the net was just the rancid icing on the cake.  That should have been the second yellow card for him and it certainly left a bad taste in the mouth.

But worse than that was the reaction from the South Stand to us going 0-2 down.  Yes, it was a bad mistake by Vicario that lead to a goal, but he didn’t mean for that to happen and the reaction of the crowd has a lot to do with players’ subsequent decisions.  In the Aston Villa match, the crowd booed him when he was under pressure and kicked the ball off.  This time he tired to keep the ball in play and ends up getting booed anyway.  To then boo him when he next got the ball tonight was hardly going to improve his performance, as who wants 12,000 fans giving you stick, so you take the safe option.  I don’t know what fans expect, as there is a widely held assumption that if we get the ball up the pitch quickly, it will somehow result in a goal.  Yes, that may happen, but when playing  a side set up to defend, and Silva does organise his side to principally do that, your chances are slim with two of our attackers up against four defenders.  And even if we do try to play the ball out, it requires others players to make themselves available to receive the ball.  Too often we see players who have to turn back (and get groans from the crowd) as there is no pass on.  So, again, a long ball forward isn’t likely to find a white shirt – not always but a lot of the time.

The sight of Porro trying to usher the players off the pitch at the end is s depressing one and hints that the players are seriously being affected by the attitude of some sections of the crowd.  Supporters are there to support.  That’s through thick and thin.  Realise we are not going to win every game and with the noise created by our fans making home games like away matches doesn’t help.  We all realise that things are not right and want the team to do well, but backing the team is the least that can be done to try to give them a bit of confidence when things.

• Quickest time that Tottenham have conceded two goals at home in the Premier League.