Fulham 3-0 Tottenham: Marco Silva gets better of Ange Postecoglou as Cottagers crowbar Spurs open

Tottenham were blown away by Fulham in a 3-0 win for the Cottagers on Saturday evening.

Rodrigo Muniz scored twice, either side of a rare Sasa Lukic strike, to put a dent in Spurs’ top-four ambitions on a night when Ange Postecoglou’s gameplan was willfully crowbarred open by his opponent.

Marco Silva’s side started brightly as Spurs struggled to click into gear, relying on centre-back stalwart Cristian Romero to pull off early blocks to deny Muniz and Andreas Pereira as Fulham created problems down both flanks.

It took until the 25th minute for the visitors to fire a shot on goal yet half-chances for Heung-min Son, James Maddison and full debutant Radu Dragusin passed them by.

The game was set to enter the break goalless but the Cottagers’ desire to hit their opponents hard and fast paid off in the 42nd minute, when a delightful Antonee Robinson cross picked out Muniz to make it 1-0.

Tottenham soared to a four-goal win in their previous away game, at Aston Villa last week, thanks to a storming second-half performance but Fulham came out quicker after this break and quickly made it two.

It was down the flanks where Spurs were found to be most porous again as Timothy Castagne had time and space to cross from the right and Lukic turned the ball home, perhaps a little inadvertently, for his first goal for the west Londoners.

With half an hour to go, the traffic continued to only go one way and Fulham’s greater desire showed as Muniz scored his second, after Calvin Bassey wrestled his marker off to spin and hit the post from a corner before the Brazilian beat Dragusin to the rebound.

Postecoglou made a triple substitution - which was too little, too late - after Joao Palhinha had a fourth ruled out for Raul Jimenez being offside as he deflected it in. One of those off the bench, Timo Werner, failed to convert with the goal gaping at the far post moments after Brennan Johnson had flapped at a sitter - although VAR may have found him to be offside. Richarlison also entered the fray, on his return from injury, to miss two decent chances.

The win keeps Fulham 12th in the Premier League table but moves them to within four points off eighth place, which could yet deliver European football, while Spurs stay fifth having missed their chance to leapfrog Aston Villa.