Jack and Loz Away from the Cottage - Blog 226

Date: 3rd September 2022

Opposition: Spurs

Venue: the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Someone won a prize for coming up with the name.

Score: 2-1

Fulham goal scorer: 🔥

Weather: just like for our trip to Arsenal, it was warm and sunny. Does it ever rain in north London?

Atmosphere: the noise in the away section was fantastic. However, “You only sing when you’re winning,” might have been written for the Spurs fans. “Is this the Emirates?” definitely was.

MOTM: we’ve always been fans of Rodak, but Bernd Leno is a different class of keeper. Even under constant pressure, he remained calm, decisive and unshakable. Our runner-up was Kenny Tete who was indefatigable and impervious in defence and who delivered that long, arching, inch-perfect pass for the goal

Lunch: we had lunch at Le Pain Quotidian in St Pancras and went back there for drinks at the Sir John Betjeman after the match. Options for food and drink in Tottenham were….limited.

Tottenham High Road is a soulless cityscape. Rubbish blows along the pavements and the air is so thick with pollution that you can almost see it. This is London at its most dynamically multicultural, the area is busy and bustling and there are few empty shops but as a walk to a football stadium it’s long, uninspiring and potentially hazardous to your health.

For a long time on this unpleasant trek, it feels like the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium doesn’t exist. You don’t see it until you’re very close. Somehow, it hides it shiny newness behind its older, dilapidated neighbours until you’re right next to it, facing a sign for the “Tottenham Experience” which is presumably an exhibition about spending many years as a fairly successful club without winning anything.

Unlike the Emirates, which is a stunning example of functionality meeting grace, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium looks a bit like Westfield. In fact, it’s a mixed use development like Westfield and as a Spurs fan you could park in Sainsbury’s car park, watch the match then do your weekly shop. Why more of them weren’t doing this was a mystery.

Signage to the away end was poor but the bag searches were impressively thorough and we got into the stadium very quickly. Inside, it is big and well maintained. The facilities were excellent. This was our first experience of safe standing and, on the whole, it worked well. The view was good but, as with all these large stadiums, the goal at the other end is so far away you can’t make out what’s happening in front of it. It must be worse for the home fans at the top of the big stand. They’re so far up that the sound from pitch level must take about 15 seconds to reach them.

Anyway, enough of praising the stadium. As we all know, Fulham have had a very good start to the season, particularly in terms of performances. That had to end sometime. The first half against Spurs was the worse half of league football Fulham have played since we lost 4-0 to Sheffield United when the players were still hungover from their title celebrations.

Play was disjointed and hesitant. The team looked a bit lost on the big pitch and a bit desperate when dealing with Spurs’ fast, disciplined attacks. We haven’t had to write this for a long time but we gave the ball away far too much and far too easily. Mitro hardly touched the ball. This was discouraging because not only did it mean we had few chances up front, it also meant (presumably under instructions) that he wasn’t helping out at the back.

Things went from bad to worse with the injury to Robinson who has been one of the leading lights of the season so far. He was replaced by Mbabu who we fully appreciate was playing out of position. But that doesn’t really excuse the mistake he made which seemed to be forgetting how to play football. If you make an error at this level you are deservedly punished and, in fact, such was the gap in both quality and organisation, we felt lucky to be only 1-0 down at the break.

Things improved in the second half with Fulham using the ball better, even if they still didn’t comprehend how much space there was. The Spurs strike force remained potent and dangerous. We have mentioned Leno already but this really was a demonstration of excellent goalkeeping under extreme duress. He kept us in the game while Spurs flung balls into the box and skimmed them across the face of goal. Tim Ream dealt with top opposition with his usual calm aplomb, ably assisted by Tosin and Pahlinha while Kenny was at times a one man defensive unit against most of the Spurs attack.

Marco Silva has been complaining about the lack of reinforcements for some considerable time. And usually at considerable length. As well. And now they’ve arrived you can see why. The entrance of Willian, Tom Cairney and Dan James changed the game. Tom often looks at his creative best against high quality opponents and he immediately set about finding the gaps, utilising the space and playing perfect passes. To be honest, Willian looks like he needs a bit of Silva polish but we liked Dan James immediately - fast, committed, incisive.

Spurs thought the job was done at 2-0 but they were wrong. Hugo Lloris had already been called on to make some good saves and Fulham were still fighting hard. Mitro, unusually quiet so far, wanted to make sure his few remaining doubters had no more ammunition. And that another team failed what is already known as the Mitrovic Test.

It was an exquisite goal, quite possibly his best Premier League goal so far, the goal of a striker so assured and confident that no defender, no goalie and no law of physics is going to stop him scoring. He received Kenny’s terrific pass, switched the ball onto his right foot and arched it into the top corner of the net. He beat no less that 6 Spurs players plus the contorting Lloris.

Spurs had a goal ruled out due to an offside from Agent Sess and then they were the ones hanging on in extra time while their fans made more noise than they had all match screaming for the whistle to blow. Only a final world-class save from Lloris from another ambitious Mitro shot kept Fulham from gaining a point.

Ultimately, the result is probably fair and while we are disappointed we are far from disheartened. The new recruits will only get better and more embedded. That was our third very tough game in 8 days. We played badly and lost a key player early on but we lost by only one goal to a Champions League side.

Most encouraging was the fact we battled and believed right to the end. This is a fantastic Fulham team with a brilliant manager, and both are only going to get better.

Random musings:-

- The ref was much better than the one we had against Brighton (not difficult) although he still made some inconsistent decisions

- There we’re some nice scenes at the end. Richarlison gave Marco his shirt, Sess came over to revisit his roots and mini Mitro (who isn’t so mini any more!) made an appearance

- What is it with opposition managers dressing like Marco? Is this a north London thing? Or a Southern European thing???

- Pahlinha removed his shirt. It would be acceptable were he to do so again

- It was nice to see Vinicius briefly. He sounds like a Roman general

It’s been a period of London derbies recently and we’ve acquitted ourselves very well. Next week though, team and fans need to be on absolute top form when we return to the Cottage to play the one derby which really matters.