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Pre-match predictions / Drinking Vessel Liquid-to-Air Ratio Analysis. “Sterling work re. preamble; by stating the bleeding obvious, that this has got stinker written all over it, we will now of course be treated to a goal-buster of epic proportions. And if not, can’t say we weren’t warned, eh? Lovely stuff, can’t wait” – Dave Estherby
“The Fulham fan (ie. me) says: ‘This is Spurs, they are rubbish at home, we might actually do something away. Ah no, we’re Fulham after all, this is when Spurs find their home form.’ The Spurs fan says: ‘This is Fulham, they are rubbish away, we might actually do something at home. Ah no, we’re Spurs after all, this is when Fulham find their away form.’ The neutral says: ‘One team’s rubbish at home, the other’s rubbish away, this is going to be a crap game.’ No prizes for guessing who’s going to be right” – Richard Hirst
Newcastle have just won 4-1 at Everton; Rob Smyth has the details of that rout. Everton’s failure to take at least a point means Spurs remain in the top half of the table going into tonight’s match, though they’ve been nudged down into 10th by Brentford’s earlier 3-1 victory over Burnley. Fulham remain where they started the day, in 15th position. That’s where they’ll stay whatever happens tonight, but Spurs can go fifth with a win, seventh with a draw.
To Be Fair dept. While the preamble suggests both teams will go into battle tonight more in hope than expectation, there are scraps of comfort to be had. Fulham are coming off the back of that aforementioned win over Sunderland, and that was their second Premier League victory in three games. They’ve also won two of their last three Premier League games against Spurs, drawing the other. Spurs meanwhile can take succour from a far better performance against PSG than the no-show at Arsenal, and the fact they’ve outperformed their xG (11.2) by nearly nine goals (20) this season. Admittedly that stat isn’t quite as impressive when you take into account some of their absurdly low xG totals – 0.1 against Chelsea and 0.07 against Arsenal are the two lowest totals of any club so far this season – but when things aren’t clicking, you take whichever positives are on offer, no matter how small.
Tottenham make four changes to the side that started the 5-3 Champions League defeat at Paris Saint-Germain. Kevin Danso, João Palhinha, Destiny Udogie and Mohammed Kudus come in for Djed Spence, Pape Sarr and Rodrigo Bentancur, who drop to the bench, and captain Cristian Romero, who misses out altogether through suspension.
Fulham make one change to their starting XI following their 1-0 home win over Sunderland. Samuel Chukwueze replaces Kevin in attack.
The teams
Tottenham Hotspur: Vicario, Porro, Danso, van de Ven, Udogie, Joao Palhinha, Gray, Kudus, Bergvall, Richarlison, Muani.
Subs: Kinsky, Simons, Tel, Johnson, Spence, Odobert, Sarr, Bentancur, Davies.
Fulham: Leno, Tete, Andersen, Bassey, Sessegnon, Iwobi, Berge, Wilson, King, Chukwueze, Jimenez.
Subs: Lecomte, Cairney, Traore, Cuenca, Kusi-Asare, Lukic, Castagne, Kevin, Smith Rowe.
Referee: Stuart Attwell
VAR: Andy Madley
Preamble
Only Wolverhampton Wanderers have a worse home record so far this season than Tottenham Hotspur; no side have won fewer away points this term than Fulham. The resistible force meets the moveable object at 8pm GMT. It’s on!
