Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Fulham: 5 talking points as Mourinho's men throw another lead away | Premier League 2020-21

In an entertaining late-notice game in North London tonight, Fulham captured a valuable point by claiming a draw with Tottenham Hotspur.

Once again, Tottenham took an early lead, this time through a Harry Kane header. However, a poor second-half performance allowed Fulham to find their equalizer.

Tottenham looked excellent early in the match, with Tanguy Ndombele’s driving runs giving Fulham’s defense plenty to think about. Jose Mourinho’s men could’ve been 3-0 up at half time had it not been for Fulham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola, who made two fantastic saves from Son Heung-min.

However, the second half was a case of déjà vu for Tottenham fans, as their side dropped deeper and deeper until something had to give. Substitute Ademola Lookman then found space to fire in a beautiful cross, and Ivan Cavaleiro was on hand to head home.

Tottenham thought they’d won the game late on – only for Sergio Reguilon’s goal to be rightly disallowed for offside.

Here are five talking points from Tottenham’s draw with Fulham.

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#1 Tottenham continue to throw away points needlessly

Harry Kane's goal wasn't enough to give Tottenham a win tonight.

Fulham looked decent when they were on the ball in the first half of tonight’s game, but there was no disputing that Tottenham were the better side overall.

Goalkeeper Alphonse Areola’s saves from Son Heung-min’s headers kept Scott Parker’s side in the game. However, Harry Kane’s diving header gave Tottenham a deserved lead. It seemed like only a matter of time before Tottenham wrapped the game up with another goal or two, but the second half changed things entirely.

Tottenham looked like a completely different team in the second 45, suddenly deciding not to really attack and dropping far too deep. Kane and Son were left largely competing for long balls from defenders Eric Dier and Davinson Sanchez. And suddenly, Fulham found far more confidence.

And so when the visitors’ equalizer came, it felt sickeningly inevitable from a Tottenham point of view. Essentially, this game was a carbon copy of Spurs’ earlier games against Crystal Palace and Wolves. The exact same thing happened in those matches, too.

The 2020-21 Premier League season is perhaps the most open title race we’ve ever seen. On paper, Tottenham have the capability of pushing for the title. But they’ve now dropped 10 points from winning positions. On current form, they’ll be lucky to make the top four.

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#2 So is Mourinho to blame or is it down to his players?

Is Jose Mourinho's pragmatic nature going to cost Tottenham this season?

The usual train of thought in the media would suggest that Tottenham’s penchant for throwing points away from a winning position is largely down to the pragmatic nature of their boss, Jose Mourinho.

After all, the Portuguese is renowned for having his team “park the bus” and drop deep in an attempt to soak up pressure before hitting opponents on the break.

However, Mourinho stated after Tottenham’s earlier draws with Crystal Palace and Wolves that he hadn’t instructed his side to drop so deep. He claimed that Palace simply stopped their gameplan, while his players were not capable of breaking Wolves down.

So is this issue down to Mourinho’s instructions, or is it down to Tottenham’s players? Well, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Mourinho may well want his side to kill games off – he’s stated before that 2-0 is his favorite scoreline.

However, after seeing him pillory Dele Alli for attempting some creativity that didn’t come off in Tottenham’s win over Stoke, is it any wonder that his side are looking more bereft of attacking thought than they probably should?

Regardless of the cause, it’s an issue Mourinho needs to deal with sooner rather than later if he wants this project to work.

#3 Fulham were well worth their point

Fulham worked hard throughout the game and deserved their point.

For as much as Tottenham threw their win away tonight, Fulham were well worth their point. Scott Parker clearly didn’t set his side up with the idea of playing not to lose, and to a man, their eleven players were excellent.

Defenders Ola Aina, Joachim Andersen, and Tosin Adarabioyo were able to keep Harry Kane and Son Heung-min largely quiet. Midfielders Harrison Reed and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa worked extremely hard, while attackers Bobby Cordova-Reid and Ivan Cavaleiro never stopped running.

The big difference-maker in this match, however, was substitute Ademola Lookman. When he was introduced, Fulham immediately had more attacking impetus, and it was his run and cross that led to Cavaleiro’s excellently-taken goal.

The point doesn’t lift Fulham away from the bottom three. But they’re now only two points away from Brighton and have two more games to play than Graham Potter’s team.

Basically, there’s every chance that Parker’s side could stay up now, and if they pull it off, the rookie boss deserves a lot of credit. However, so do Fulham’s recruitment team. They’ve replaced practically their whole defense – and it might well save their Premier League status.

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#4 Why did Tottenham not unleash Dele?

Tottenham's Dele Alli was once again conspicuous by his absence.

Given Tottenham’s clear issues with creativity – particularly in the second half of this game – one major question has to be why Jose Mourinho didn’t introduce Dele Alli into the fray.

The England international had a very impressive match at the weekend. And while it was against weak opposition in the form of non-league Marine, everything in the build-up to this match suggested that Mourinho was willing to unleash him against Fulham.

Instead, Mourinho chose Moussa Sissoko on the right side of his attack, with Harry Winks and Tanguy Ndombele playing ahead of holding man Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. And when it came time to introduce some substitutes, Erik Lamela and Carlos Vinicius were instead sent on.

So what does this mean for Dele’s future at Tottenham? In all honesty, the likely answer is that his career in North London is over. Mourinho will likely deny this when he’s asked, but with links to his old boss Mauricio Pochettino – now at Paris St. Germain – not going away, a move seems like the best thing for all parties right now.

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#5 Should the game have gone ahead at all?

Scott Parker described the decision to play tonight's game as "scandalous," but the issue is down to the Premier League.

Prior to tonight’s game, the big controversy was around it happening in the first place. Tonight should’ve seen Tottenham face Aston Villa, while Fulham were left to prepare for a match against Chelsea on Friday evening.

Instead, when Villa were forced to postpone due to a bad COVID-19 outbreak in their squad, the Premier League decided to shift things around a little.

Fulham’s game with Tottenham on December 30th had been postponed due to a COVID-19 outbreak in their squad, so in order to avoid fixture congestion, that game was moved into this spot instead. And in turn, their clash with Chelsea was moved to Saturday.

Fulham boss Scott Parker was thoroughly unimpressed with this turn of events – labeling the decision “scandalous.” But after securing a point, it’d be interesting to know his feelings on the situation.

Essentially, the Premier League had little choice here, as Tottenham’s schedule going forward is such that there would’ve been no gaps for them to play two postponed fixtures. It’s worth asking, however, why Premier League fixtures are being postponed in the first place.

When the 2020-21 season began, the word was that as long as a side could field at least 14 players, then a match would go ahead. This theory that was blown out of the water in early December when Newcastle United were allowed to postpone their match with Villa.

Given that the COVID-19 pandemic is not going away anytime soon – and the Premier League is desperate to continue – then we should expect more issues like this in the near future.

Essentially, the league should’ve come to some kind of consensus – perhaps even forfeits – to avoid this, and as they haven’t, we’re left with somewhat of a mess.