Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Fulham

Fulham suffered a narrow 2-1 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday afternoon.

Pierre-Emile Højbjerg put the hosts ahead in the first half, before Harry Kane doubled their advantage on 75 minutes. Aleksandar Mitrović gave us hope with a beautiful strike late on, but in the end the Spurs defence held firm.

Head Coach Marco Silva made no changes to the starting 11 that produced a strong display against Brighton and Hove Albion on Tuesday, but the bench was boosted after the arrival of several players on deadline day.

Willian, Dan James and Carlos Vinícius all featured on the bench alongside centre-back Shane Duffy, who returned to the matchday squad after being ineligible against the Seagulls.

We started well and almost found an opening just four minutes in. Mitro brought the ball down well before feeding in Bobby De Cordova-Reid, who was tackled by Ryan Sessegnon before he could pull the trigger.

The hosts responded well, though, with Bernd Leno diving to his right to parry a powerful Kane strike.

Kenny Tete was forced into some defending himself soon after, making a last-ditch challenge to stop Richarlison from poking home at close-range.

We were having to ride an early storm in North London. Spurs had the ball in the net 10 minutes in, but with Kane appearing to go for the ball from an offside position, the flag was raised straight after.

Next to produce an excellent piece of defending was Tim Ream, who came rushing out to heroically block Heung-Min Son’s effort after latching onto a Richarlison low ball from the left.

We were forced into a first half substitution, with Kevin Mbabu replacing Antonee Robinson, who limped off after pulling up.

We were showing promise in patches, but Spurs looked dangerous in the opening half hour and were denied by the crossbar on 32 minutes. Kane played a clever chipped ball through to Son, whose venomous strike from a few yards out rattled the woodwork.

Our back line defended resolutely but went behind five minutes before the break. Richarlison poked the ball to Pierre-Emile Højberg, who slotted past Leno to open the scoring.

Andreas looked to bring Mitro into the game up the other end, curling in a delivery towards the big man. The cross was on target but a little too high for our number nine.

After a busy opening 45, we went in a goal behind.

The home side came out strong after the break. Kane fed the ball to Richarlison, whose side footed attempt was well claimed by Leno.

A few minutes later, Hugo Lloris was forced to make his first meaningful save, diving to his right to keep out Mitro’s deflected strike.

The second half showed no signs of slowing. Leno was then called into action, somehow tipping Sessegnon’s low effort just wide of the post. A great stop to keep us in the game.

Marco felt it was time to turn to the bench with an hour on the clock. Willian, James and Tom Cairney were all introduced, replacing Neeskens Kebano, De Cordova-Reid and Andreas.

James tried to create an impact after coming on and swung an excellent delivery into Mitro, who failed to get a clean connection on his header.

We were given a mountain to climb on 75 minutes, with Spurs scoring a second. After some neat build-up play, Son delivered the ball across to Kane who tapped home from close range.

We gave ourselves a chance with just under 10 minutes remaining, and it was a moment of brilliance from Mitro to grab us a goal back. Tete played a nice diagonal to the forward, who cut in onto his right before curling a beauty past Lloris and into the top far corner.

The goal galvanised our lads, who went in search of the leveler. Cairney found himself in a great position, but couldn't pull the trigger fast enough in the end. A few minutes later, Mitro's effort was deflected and tipped just over by Lloris.

Richarlison had the ball in the net late on, but just like in the first half, it was eventually disallowed for offside.

We pushed for an equaliser, but soon ran out of time at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.