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Premier League Preview: Tottenham Hotspur vs Fulham

  • FIy999 2024/12/01 05:57
  • 0

Bidding to arrest a two-game run without a home victory, Tottenham Hotspur host London rivals Fulham in Sunday's Premier League derby.


When stand-in goalkeeper Fraser Forster pulled off a last-minute wonder save in Thursday's showdown with Roma, the destiny of the Europa League points had seemingly been decided, with Son Heung-min and Brennan Johnson's efforts edging Spurs ahead in a frenetic battle.


However, having been denied twice by the offside flag in the second half, Claudio Ranieri's team finally nabbed the leveller that their relentless pressure deserved, as veteran defender Mats Hummels crashed home at the back stick to conclude a chaotic North London night.


The 2-2 stalemate with Roma marked the second Tottenham game in a row where the net bulged four times, but all four of those efforts astonishingly went the Lilywhites' way at the Etihad last weekend, where Spurs slaughtered a capitulating Manchester City side to rise to sixth place in the Premier League standings.


Only three points separates Postecoglou's outfit from Brighton & Hove Albion, Arsenal and Chelsea before gameweek 12 gets underway, but the crushing of City represents the hosts' only triumph from their last four matches in all tournaments, a sequence that also includes consecutive defeats to Galatasaray and Ipswich Town.


Tottenham have at least found the back of the net in eight straight home games across all tournaments since September's 1-0 defeat to Arsenal, one of seven losses that Postecoglou has overseen from 16 Premier League London derbies since taking the reins in 2023.


Of all managers to have taken charge of at least 10 matches for Tottenham's men's team, Postecoglou is statistically the second-worst when it comes to Premier League London derbies - his 44% loss rate is only marginally better than Glenn Hoddle's 48% in capital clashes.


However, Spurs are hosting a Fulham side reeling from a Craven Cottage catastrophe at home to relegation-threatened Wolves, who fell behind to an early Alex Iwobi effort before going on the West London warpath through Matheus Cunha (2), Goncalo Guedes and Joao Gomes.


Having seen their three-game unbeaten run come to an end in truly disheartening circumstances, Fulham have fallen one point and three places below Tottenham in ninth spot, although Marco Silva's troops remain firmly in continental contention with nearly a third of the season complete.


The only pleasing aspect of last weekend's shellacking for Fulham was that Iwobi's strike made it 13 games in all competitions with at least one goal for the Cottagers, who have not been shut out by any team since losing to Manchester United in the opening Premier League contest of the season.


The Cottagers have also avoided defeat in each of their last seven Premier League London derbies and could go unbeaten in eight for the first time ever, most recently decimating Spurs 3-0 at Craven Cottage in March, but their last league success on Tottenham's turf arrived all the way back in March 2013.


possible starting lineup:

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