In keeping with their inconsistent form this season, Tottenham followed up last week’s stunning victory over Manchester City with a 1-1 draw against a Fulham team which played out the latter part of the second half with 10 men.
Without summer signing Dominic Solanke, who was sent home on the morning of the match because of illness, Spurs initially struggled to puncture Fulham’s defence. A second-half volley from Brennan Johnson put the hosts ahead, but Fulham were soon level as the visitors deservedly scored — Tom Cairney’s fine curling effort left Fraser Forster with no chance in the home goal.
That Tottenham secured a point had much to do with Forster’s fine performance. The goalkeeper — making his first league appearance since May 2023 — was instrumental in ensuring the home team went into the break level at 0-0 and made two fine saves from Issa Diop and Alexander Iwobi at the start of the second half.
With Fulham down to 10 men after Cairney’s red card, Tottenham were unable to make the most of the advantage. Cairney was initially shown a yellow but after referee Darren Bond went to the VAR, the Fulham goalscorer was shown a straight red for his challenge on Dejan Kulusevski.
Jack Pitt-Brooke and Jay Harris break down the action.
How did Tottenham cope without Solanke?
This was always going to be a difficult day for Tottenham after Solanke was too ill to play. That meant Spurs had to turn to Son Heung-min to lead the line inside. It was just the second time this season Son has started as the No 9.
Much of this game was a reminder of how important Solanke is to Tottenham. His ability to hold onto the ball under pressure and link with team-mates is integral to how Spurs want to play. And Son, for all his strengths, cannot do that.
Spurs struggled to keep the ball in Fulham’s half, Son often losing it in the tackle. This made it hard for Spurs to create anything and their best chances came from set pieces or on the break.
One of those breaks early in the second half led to Spurs’ goal, with Johnson volleying in Timo Werner’s cross. But Spurs could never truly be themselves without the reference point of Solanke up front. They will need him back and fit as soon as possible.
Jack Pitt-Brooke
How did Forster perform?
A few things have changed since Forster’s last appearance for Tottenham in the Premier League. Back then, in May 2023, Ryan Mason was interim head coach following Antonio Conte’s dismissal. Five of the players who started that 4-1 victory over Leeds United are no longer at Spurs while the style of play has been completely transformed under Ange Postecoglou.
Forster might have been returning to a familiar competition but he needed to play in a completely different way against Fulham. While Guglielmo Vicario recovers from ankle surgery, Forster will be expected to help Spurs build up attacks. The 36-year-old has played in cup competitions, including Thursday’s 2-2 draw with Roma in the Europa League, but executing that in the Premier League would be a much tougher challenge.
He was comfortable receiving the ball from his defenders on multiple occasions against Fulham but in the 39th minute his pass towards Yves Bissouma was intercepted and led to Raul Jimenez having a shot that was blocked.
Drawing with Fulham was disappointing for Spurs but it would have been worse without Forster. While the rest of the team struggled, he was one of their best players and produced a series of impressive saves.
In the space of two minutes at the start of the second half, he prevented Diop and Iwobi from scoring at close-range. He denied Jimenez several times but there was nothing he could do about Cairney’s powerful drive.
Nevertheless, over the last week, Forster has shown enough to suggest that Spurs should be fine while Vicario is absent.
Jay Harris
Why are Spurs so inconsistent?
After Tottenham’s stunning 4-0 victory over Manchester City at the Etihad, the entire fanbase knew that they could only truly start getting excited about this side’s progression again if they beat Fulham.
Spurs have been exceptional at times this season, including in the victories over Manchester United, West Ham United and Aston Villa, but will often follow it up with a sluggish performance. They had an opportunity to break this frustrating habit on Sunday afternoon and prove to everybody that they are heading in the right direction. A victory over Fulham would have put them one point behind fourth-placed Brighton.
Instead, the cycle continued. Club-record signing Solanke was unavailable due to illness and Spurs missed his presence upfront. Son struggles to hold up the ball and press opposition defenders as effectively as his team-mate. Kulusevski was dropped to the bench to manage his workload and without his driving forward runs Tottenham were less threatening.
Postecoglou does not tend to moan about injuries but he was without four of his regular starting XI (Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero, Solanke and Vicario) while a fifth was on the bench. Maybe the grind of competing in the Europa League, Carabao Cup and the Premier League is taking its toll more than he wants to admit.
The counter argument is that Postecoglou took too long to make substitutions against Fulham. Pedro Porro struggled throughout the second half after an awkward slip but stayed on, while Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall did not come on until the 83rd minute. Kulusevski, their best player this season, came on after Fulham’s equaliser but went up front instead of in central midfield where he has been so influential this season.
Tottenham continue to confuse everybody and there is still a lot of room for improvement.
Jay Harris
What did Ange Postecoglou say?
On why Spurs can’t replicate the performance against Manchester City every week, Postecoglou said: “If you can’t see that even in seven days, we’ve copped a couple of significant blows since then I think it’s too easy to say ‘let’s just play like we did against Man City every game.’ And it somehow again seems with this club that whenever it is that we do well is then used as a millstone to bring us down at every other opportunity.
“From my perspective, it’s really important that we don’t react to any of that and just stay focused, because I just sometimes feel like, especially the players we’ve got at the moment, they’re just really working really hard for this football club to try and progress as to where we want to be. We’re in good shape, we’re still in good shape, we’re still in a decent position in the league. We’re still in the Carabao Cup, we’re in a decent position in Europe, so it’s about us maintaining our focus on continuing to develop.”
On Solanke’s late withdrawal, the manager said: “It doesn’t help… From my perspective the players, the ones who are out there anyways, have given absolutely everything and that is all you can ask for. They are working their socks off and digging in as deep as they can to try to keep us progressing.”
Postecoglou on Forster’s performance: “He was good. We needed him obviously in some big moments, and when you lose your goalkeeper and somebody as significant as Vic (Guglielmo Vicario) for us, I think the key to that is to have somebody experienced who’s not going to be sort of overawed by filling those shoes. Fraser, certainly, he’s done it for a number of years. We see him every day. What you saw out there, we see every day training and he still has a really strong work ethic and we had a couple of big moments which were important for us and again, he will be important moving forward.”
What next for Tottenham?
Thursday, December 5: Bournemouth (A), Premier League, 8.15pm GMT, 3.15pm ET
Recommended reading
How will Tottenham – and Fraser Forster – cope in Guglielmo Vicario’s absence?
Spurs Transfer DealSheet: What to expect from the club in 2025’s two windows
How Brennan Johnson is building his Tottenham career on a trademark goal
Spurs must stop these wild swings in mood and form – but this may be the hardest time to do that
(Top image: Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images)