Fulham 0 Tottenham 3

The scoreline probably made Tottenham look much better than they actually were in the game but I am sure that Andre Villa Boas would not mind. In truth, both teams looked poor in the game and a 0-0 would not have been an unfair result. In the end, it was a mistake from the usually reliable Mark Schwarzer that opened the floodgates for Tottenham. Sandro curled a innocuous looking shot from way out which Schwarzer somehow managed to allow to bounce onto his hands and over him. Granted, the ball was in the bottom corner but it was not with much speed and definitely should have been dealt with. Tottenham never looked back after this gift and Defoe scored a brace in the 72nd and 76th minutes to secure the win for the team.

What interested me more was the positioning of players when both teams attacked. Fulham played with two strikers, Petric and Berbatov, though Berbatov sometimes roamed to the wings during counter attacks. Steve Sidwell started much higher up than he normally does and constantly moved into the box. For Fulham, the winger which is not on the flank of that attack will move centrally but outside the box.


The advantage of this is that when their wide midfielders pass to the fullbacks, the fullbacks are running onto the ball and it is easier to get speed for the cross. This is probably why we saw so many drilled crosses from Fulham instead of high looping ones. In fact, It was only when Damien Duff came on in the 65th minute that we saw the first high cross by Fulham. Also, with the opposite wide midfielder outside the box, Fulham could pick up most of the clearance from crosses and Frei had a chance from such a situation but shot too high in the 12th minute despite having a lot of time. With Sidwell's positioning, there was also a midfield runner onto crosses that posed problems for Tottenham's defence if Sandro did not track him properly. Sidwell did not make use of the chances that came his way though and I really wonder if he is a good enough player for this position. This brings me to the main gripe about the Fulham team, which is that although they have a really defined style of play, they do not seem to have a full set of players to complete it. Players such as Frei, Petric, Sidwell, Kelly and Senderos seemed to not be in tandem with the rest of the team and showed the lack of depth in the team where their Plan A could only be executed if all their first choice players are available. I am interested to see what this team can achieve if Jol manages to strengthen in the upcoming windows and get the players that would fit into the team. For now, he will just have to hope that his team stays fit and players like Ruiz and Kacaniklic return from injury soon to push the team back to the form they had at the end of the season.

Tottenham adopted a different approach to their attack despite similar reliance on fullbacks pushing up. The fullbacks were their main source of width, with the wide midfielders moving inwards parallel to them. Verthonghen and Naughton seemed permanently stationed at the wide berths, playing very very high up.


The difference of Tottenham and Fulham is that the wingers move infield even before the cross is sent in and it is not just the wingers on the opposite side that moves in. For example, if the ball is on the left flank, Bale moves in too before passing to Vertonghen who will deliver the cross. This allowed Tottenham more players in the box when the cross came in. However, Fulham caught on onto this and closed down the fullbacks with two players once they got the ball. As the fullbacks received the ball in a stationary position, it was hard for them to deliver the cross with two players blocking him. Villa-Boas should have done better and told his wingers to stay wider and help provide a passing option for the fullbacks. Another problem was that there were no midfielders to collect loose balls when FUlham cleared the crosses as Sandro and Dembele stayed quite deep and Dembele in particular did not make much impact on the game. Tottenham's formation worked better when they played through the middle instead of to the fullbacks. Defoe and Dempsey were both comfortable with receiving the ball with their back facing the goal and both of them made a few snapshots on the turn that were just wide of the goal. However, the goals came when the passes were played behind the defence for Defoe to run into, with Dempsey slipping in the key pass for Defoe in the 76th minute for the last goal. This was a rarity though, and Dempsey mainly looked to shoot instead of taking the pass. I would think that Dembele would be a better fit in that role and Villa-Boas might want to consider this option in the next game to better utilise the talented Belgium.

This London derby ended a great week for Tottenham, when they picked up 9 points out of 9 and advanced up the table. Meanwhile, Fulham continued slipping down the table and they desperately need to start picking up points again as they are now going to the lower half of the table.