Key events
27 min: Maddison’s awareness sets up Hojberg for a shot on goal. If anything he’s hit that too cleanly, and Leno makes an easy save.
26 min: Boos for Willian on yet another Fulham break. The ball moves infield and Sasa Lukic sees glory and shoots from somewhere in the Cockfosters area. There are jeers.
25 min: Fulham have edged their way in by breaking the early flow of Spurs. Looks like Ange-ball will require some hard yakka to get the three points.
23 min: Bit of afters after a tackle from Palhinha on Udogie, Romero with the “hold me back” activity but the referee, Anthony Taylor, does well to cool the waters.
21 min: Better pass from Bassey this time. Dressing-room nickname: Shirley or Count? Willian, lively so far, tries to create an angle, and Fulham get another corner. Vicario does well with this one, too.
19 min: William, the Spurs player who never was, runs into the form of Kulusevski, and falls down, and then it’s Fulham’s turn to be overelaborate with a free-kick. No problem, Castagne picks up the loose ball and almost finds Vinicius, whose header flies skywards rather than goalwards.
16 min: Romero’s pass goes straight to Castagne but then Bassey is uncertain in getting the ball clear.
Justin Kavanagh is in: “So if Hugo Lloris is tuning in to watch how his replacement at Spurs is doing, will he be goalkeeping Vicariously?”
15 min: Fulham have pushed out, and Tottenham not having it all quite all their own way.
13 min: Palhinha’s presence at Fulham is reassuring, despite him being pictured in a Bayern shirt that time. Awkward but not insurmountable.
12 min: At this point, you begin to question why no Spurs boss since Pochettino decided to attack. But what’s this? De Cordova-Reid forces a corner, and then Palhinha’s header is powerful and Vicario saves very well. The Italian has been decent since a dodgy debut at Brentford.
10 min: It’s been all Spurs…46% of the play in Fulham’s final third. Ange-ball in action.
9 min: Free improv free-kick. Maddison dinks the ball up and Romero heads back and Van der Ven volleys over. Then, there’s a penalty call as Kulusevski is brought down on the very edge of the box. VAR is called upon to check whether it was in the box. It wasn’t, and the free-kick doesn’t come to much, either.
6 min: Udogie, in constant motion, sets up Maddison and Palhinha, no stranger to a tactical foul, brings down Maddison.
4 min: Spurs beginning with confidence. Fulham chasing hard, as is their usual way, and making use of the offside trap when Maddison is attempting his passes through the defence.
3 min: Early touches for Udogie down the left, and Richarlison involved, too. Son is slipped through by Maddison’s pass and Leno smothers well. Maddison was clattered as he released the ball and so the advantage is taken back. It’s a free-kick in Maddison territory that he pokes to Udogie who then mis-controls. Maybe shoot next time, Madders.
1 min: Fulham kick off, and De Cordova-Reid takes an early potshot that causes no problem for Vicario.
A minute’s silence is held ahead of the game, as a mark of the respect for those lost in affected by the conflict in Israel and Gaza. It’s well observed, thankfully.
The game is almost upon us on what is an autumnal if still curiously warm evening in north London. There’s a trumpeter playing “When The Spurs Go Marching In”. Willian seems to be the player doing the most intra-mural chat between the two teams. Is he the Spurs player that never was?
Marco Silva, the Fulham manager, spoke to Sky Sports: “We have to respect the good moment they [Spurs] are in, but as always we look at ourselves and what we can do. We want to see ourselves improving game by game.
On Calvin Bassey, the summer signing from Rangers: “Yes it is another opportunity for him. He did very well at Arsenal until his second yellow card, the first one he got that game was really unfair. We believe he is adapting and learning the idea we want to play. We have a lot of competition in that position, we now have injuries to Tosin and Diop so we need to make this change.
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Justin Kavanagh gets in touch: “Was that photo of Ange Postecoglou snapped just as he stood up from fixing the faulty wiring on the TV monitor? There seems little he can’t fix at Spurs these days.”
Richard Hirst gets in touch: “As a Fulham fan (of the Johnny Haynes vintage) I feel bizarrely positive about tonight’s game. Maybe that is because no one expects us to do well so it is, in current parlance, a ‘free hit’ (where did that term come from? I’m sure it predates the free hit for a no ball in limited overs cricket.).”
”The bottom four, on whom my eyes are firmly fixed, only got one point between them over the weekend, so anything we get will be a bonus. If we had a striker who could score goals (or even a goal) I would even fancy us to win. The next three hours will probably make a fool out of me, but, hey, a man can dream. COYW.”
Ange Postecoglou spoke to Sky Sports ahead of the match: “Romero has been super-important to us. We’ve got a new goalkeeper, a new centre-half, a new left-back, a right-back who is adjusting to a new position. Having a World Cup-winner amongst them gives me some comfort.”
Cristian Romero, outstanding in Tottenham’s win at Luton comes back in, and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg replaces the suspended Bissouma. For Fulham, Calvin Bassey starts in place of Issa Diop, while Sasa Lukic comes in for Alex Iwobi, perhaps adding a bit more defensive ballast in midfield for Marco Silva.
The teams
Tottenham: Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie; Hojbjerg, Sarr; Kulusevski, Maddison, Richarlison; Son. Subs: Forster, Skipp, Gil, Emerson, Dier, Lo Celso, Johnson, Phillips, Veliz.
Fulham: Leno, Bassey, Ream, Decordova-Reid, Pereira, Willian, Castagne, Palhinha, Lukic, Vinicius, Robinson. Subs: Rodak, Reed, Jimenez, Wilson, Cairney, Ballo-Toure, Muniz, Iwobi, De Fougerolles.
Today’s Football Daily leads on Tottenham’s new maverick, James Maddison.
“I like that pantomime villain-type vibe that’s created often at away games, especially because of the type of player I am and even the type of person I am sometimes, I don’t mind getting a bit of stick,” Maddison chuckled to TalkSport. “Sometimes it comes with the character I have but I don’t mind that.”
Early team news:
Son Heung-min and Cristian Romero, Spurs’ attacking and defensive leaders, look likely to be fit to play, and Brennan Johnson has a clean bill of health after missing Wales’ games. There will be no Yves Bissouma after two yellow cards at Luton.
Issa Diop is missing for Fulham, as will beTosin Adarabioyo, Adama Traore and Kenny Tete.
Preamble
Tottenham, Tottenham, no-one can stop them, they’re going to do it like they did in the year of 1961. Yes, that’s Tottenham, who can go top of the table and climb above Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool to lead the league after nine matches. The last time they started so well, the team rolled off the tongue of Spurs fans – Brown, Baker, Henry, Blanchflower, Norman, Mackay, Jones, White, Smith, Allen and Dyson – for decades. So, no pressure but perhaps a time to enjoy life as a Spurs fan. Ange Postecoglou is the most popular Australian import to England since Gina Gee and Mark Little bringing his Joe Mangel vibes to the Big Breakfast. So then, Fulham, who have arrested what was a wobbly start to the season by beating Sheffield United and Luton, putting distance between themselves and the real strugglers. It’s still a good time to be a Fulham fan, if not quite of the Roy Hodgson/Johnny Haynes vintage days (more 1960 vibes there) and Marco Silva likes his team to play the *right* way, just like Ange.
Kick-off is at 8pm. Join me.