Tottenham squandered a chance to finish in the Premier League’s top four with a 3-0 defeat at Fulham, while Luton drew 1-1 with relegation rivals Nottingham Forest on Saturday. Angie Postkoglu’s side could have moved above Aston Villa into fourth with a win, but instead handed the initiative back to their top-four rivals. Fifth-placed Tottenham were punished for a poor performance as in-form Rodrigo Muniz scored a goal against Sasa Lukic for Fulham’s first goal Scored two goals.
Last weekend’s 4-0 win over Villa was expected to be a springboard for Spurs to overtake Unai Emery’s side in the race for Champions League qualification next season.
Instead, the north Londoners suffered their first league defeat at Craven Cottage since 2008 and failed to score for the first time in 40 games.
They are two points behind Villa, who can extend their lead to five with victory over West Ham on Sunday.
“We were careless with the ball. It was a bad day in the office, but we don’t accept it. It’s not our normal level. We didn’t have the same intensity,” Postkoglu said.
“We’re two points behind Villa. There’s a lot of games left. It’s all about how we play.”
Radu Dragusin made his first start for Tottenham Hotspur with Mickey van de Veen ruled out with a hamstring injury.
What worries Postkoglu is that Romanian centre-back Dragusin, signed from Genoa in January, has often struggled.
Fulham took the lead in the 42nd minute after Muniz cleverly got rid of Dragusin and the Brazilian forward found space to collect Anthony Robinson’s low cross and finish coolly from 10 yards.
Four minutes after half-time, Tottenham’s defensive flaws were exposed again.
Iwobi was allowed to advance unchecked and he passed the ball to Timothy Castagny, whose cross hit Lukic and deflected into the net.
Tottenham were in trouble and Muniz scored again in the 61st minute.
Joao Palinha’s header found its way to Calvin Bassey and when his shot was saved by Guglielmo Vicario, Muniz reacted quicker than Dragusin and fired home Score.
“We must fight”
Luton Town and Forest face off in a crucial showdown at Kenilworth Road as the relegation battle comes to a head.
Forest had been beaten in each of their first three games but took the lead thanks to Chris Wood’s 34th-minute goal.
But in the 89th minute, substitute Luke Berry equalized the score with a close-range shot.
Third-bottom Luton lost a three-goal lead in Wednesday’s 3-4 defeat at Bournemouth and are without a win in their past nine games.
They trail fourth-placed Forest by three points and coach Rob Edwards said: “You got knocked down on Wednesday and it was very tough for all of us. We performed really well today in a difficult situation.”
“This group is going to keep moving forward. We have to fight. We’ve been doing this for a long time.”
Forest coach Nuno Espirito Santo added: “With the chances we had and the way we played, we did enough to win.”
At Turf Moor, second-to-bottom Burnley defeated Brentford 2-1 to maintain their slim hope of survival.
Vincent Kompany’s side took the lead in the 10th minute when Vitinho sprinted onto a pass from Josh Cullen and was about to shoot, only to be pulled down by Sergio Reguilon.
After a VAR check, the Spanish defender was shown the earliest red card in the Premier League this season, and Jacob Bruun Larsson stepped up to take the penalty kick.
David Datro Fofana, on loan from Chelsea, calmly fired into the far corner in the 62nd minute.
Kristoffer Ajer pulled a goal back in the 83rd minute when he headed in a Bryan Mbeumo pass, but the Clarets held on for a first league win in 11 games .
They are now eight points from safety with nine games remaining.
“It has arrived. On another day we could have scored more goals,” Kompany said.
Brentford have won just three of their last 18 league games and are just four points above the relegation zone.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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