[Source: Reuters]

Fulham put a sizeable dent in Tottenham Hotspur’s Premier League top-four hopes as in-form Rodrigo Muniz’s double earned them an impressive 3-0 victory at Craven Cottage this morning.

Tottenham could have moved above Aston Villa into fourth place in the standings with a win but apart from a brief spell before halftime were lackadaisical and could have no complaints.

Muniz broke the deadlock in the 42nd minute and scored again just past the hour mark to finish off Tottenham after Sasa Lukic had doubled Fulham’s lead shortly after the interval.

It completed a notable home double for Fulham over Tottenham having also knocked them out of the League Cup.

Tottenham remain in fifth place with 53 points from 28 games while Fulham are in 12th spot with 38 points from 29 games.

A 4-0 win at Villa last week had given Tottenham momentum in the race for Champions League qualification but they came back down to earth with the sort of capitulation their fans hoped had become a thing of the past since Ange Postecoglou took charge.

“In the second half we didn’t get to grips with the game. The intensity dropped,” Postecoglou said.
“Our final third play wasn’t great. But it’s more the overall play that was disappointing. There are things we’ve done all year we’ve prided ourselves on, our intensity and tempo, but that wasn’t there in the second half.
“We couldn’t get any control or traction in the game.”

The only surprise in a chance-packed first half was that it remained scoreless for 42 minutes.

Fulham started with far more urgency than their visitors with Andreas Pereira in the thick of the action.

He almost scored with Fulham’s first attack, his shot deflecting off Cristian Romero and fizzing wide. Soon afterwards when Spurs keeper Guglielmo Vicario spilled a low cross into his path he again was denied by a superb block from Romero.

Vicario also made smart saves from Lukic and Willian before Tottenham finally began to offer some threat.