Fulham battled back to earn a 1-1 stalemate away at Tottenham Hotspur, setting a team-record eighth Premier League (PL) London clash in a row without losing (W4, D4).
After an impressive 4-0 triumph at Manchester City in their prior PL match, Ange Postecoglou’s squad aimed to make a swift opening here, striving to achieve some form of regularity that has so far escaped them. A defensive misstep gifted Son Heung-min an early chance, but Bernd Leno was equal to the shot as Spurs began to menace in counterattacks. At the opposite end, Raúl Jiménez appeared destined to net when he found himself unguarded in the area, yet his cushioned side-foot was tipped away by stand-in Fraser Forster, making his first PL start in 18 months.
The Cottagers continued to craft decent chances in the first half, none of which came closer to hitting the target than Alex Iwobi’s deflected effort that rebounded off the crossbar. On the verge of halftime, Spurs were also thwarted by the framework, with James Maddison grazing the near post from a cleverly-taken low free-kick beneath the Fulham wall.
Having netted in each of their previous 11 PL fixtures leading into this one, Marco Silva’s team stayed on the front foot after the break, but once again, they were frustrated by Forster when Issa Diop’s back-post header ricocheted off the goalkeeper’s leg. However, against the flow of play and breaking this season’s habit of conceding first in the PL, Tottenham took the lead through Brennan Johnson, who converted Timo Werner’s floated pass with a composed close-range volley. Now more familiar with bench roles than starting, Fulham’s team captain Tom Cairney came on to equalize with 67 minutes gone, smashing in Iwobi’s pull-back from just inside the area.
A relatively open finale might have gone either direction, but in the end, the points were divided as Cairney exited prematurely following a red card for a reckless tackle on Dejan Kulusevski. Failure to capitalize on their monumental City victory leaves Tottenham seventh in the standings, two points behind Nottingham Forest directly above them. As for Fulham, just one loss in five league matches, despite a heavy 4-1 defeat by Wolverhampton Wanderers, sees the Cottagers climb into the top half, level on points with three other clubs.