Soccer

Tom Cairney equalises but then sees red as Fulham earn point at Tottenham

Draw keeps Spurs above Fulham in the table, but there was little doubting who was the better side on Sunday

Fulham's Tom Cairney leaves the field after being shown a red card. Photograph: Ben Whitley/PA Wire
Fulham's Tom Cairney leaves the field after being shown a red card. Photograph: Ben Whitley/PA Wire
Jonathan Wilson
Sun Dec 01 2024 - 16:03
Premier League: Tottenham 1 [Johnson 54] Fulham 1 [Cairney 67]

It would be tempting to talk of Tottenham at least being predictable in their unpredictability, of the way they cannot but follow up a great result with a disappointing one, of the inevitability of them, having beaten Manchester City 4-0 last weekend, failing to beat Fulham at home this. But actually the story on Sunday was far more about Fulham, how well they played and how mystifying it was they did not take all three points having had the better of the majority of the game.

What made their performance all the more impressive was that they did it without the midfielder Andreas Pereira, who was left out of the match-day squad after giving an interview to Brazilian media in which he seemed to suggest he would quite fancy a move to Marseille to play under Roberto De Zerbi.

That they were not ahead by the time Tom Cairney was sent off after 83 minutes was almost entirely down to the heroics of Tottenham’s backup goalkeeper Fraser Forster, who hadn’t played a league game for 18 months and whose obvious differences from the first choice Guglielmo Vicario, absent with a fractured ankle, had been the source of much prematch concern. Only 7 per cent of Vicario’s passes had been played into the opponent’s half this season, by far the lowest figure in the league, and he’d maintained a 90.8 per cent pass completion rate. Forster, it may be kindest to say, is a more old-fashioned kind of goalkeeper.

But however justified the anxiety about his capacity to play out from the back, at 36 Forster’s reflexes remain sharp. After a brave early block from Raúl Jiménez, he made a fine save diving to his right to keep out a sidefoot volley from the Mexican eight minutes before half-time. If anything, the fingertip he got on an Alex Iwobi effort to divert it on to the bar five minutes later was even better.

READ SOME MORE

The red card, inevitably, checked Fulham’s momentum. Sasa Lukic had earlier perhaps been fortunate not to collect a second yellow for an ugly lunge on Son Heung-min – he was substituted almost immediately afterwards – but Fulham were reduced to 10 as Cairney was dismissed following a VAR review after planting his studs in the back of Dejan Kulusevski’s calf.

Tottenham Hotspur's Brennan Johnson scores. Photograph: Ben Whitley/PA
Tottenham Hotspur's Brennan Johnson scores. Photograph: Ben Whitley/PA

The underlying data suggests Tottenham are not actually quite as inconsistent as their results would imply. Before this weekend, nobody had scored more goals than them in the Premier League and nobody had a better non-penalty xG. At the other end, they had conceded the fourth-fewest goals, the third-fewest shots and the seventh-best xG against. When they won it had always been by at least two goals and on all but one occasion by three; all five of their defeats were by a single goal. But perhaps that’s the definition of Spursiness, the lily-livered Lilywhites who can turn it on with a swagger when the going is good, but who cannot deal with a scrap.

The expected points table had them fourth. But before getting too carried away, it’s worth pointing out that Fulham, who started the day a point behind Tottenham, were second in that particular table with the second-lowest xG against in the league. Which given they contrived to lose 4-1 at home to Wolves last weekend suggests they are not entirely without a touch of Spursy unpredictability themselves. In that regard, a draw was perhaps the predictable outcome.

Without the ill Dominic Solanke, and with Kulesevski left on the bench after playing the full 90 against Roma on Thursday, Son had to be shunted into the centre. That makes it harder for Spurs to hold possession and means they will always be at their most effective playing on the break when there is space behind the opposing defence to attack. As a result, their threat was extremely limited, although Radu Dragusin had a header tipped over by Bernd Leno and James Maddison hit the post with a clever free-kick under the wall.

Having shaded the first half, Fulham dominated the early stages of the second, Forster keeping out back-post efforts from Issa Diop and Iwobi. And then, with absolutely no warning, Tottenham took a 57th-minute lead, Brennan Johnson left weirdly unmarked to slam in his 10th of the season from Timo Werner’s cross.

The 10 minutes before that had arguably been Spurs’ worst 10 minutes of the season – including the capitulation at Brighton. Was this a side finally learning to win in adversity? It was not. Iwobi cut the ball back and Cairney slammed in the equaliser from the edge of the box.

The draw keeps Spurs above Fulham in the table, but there was little doubting who was the better side on Sunday afternoon. – Guardian