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Of Tottenham’s three damaging results in seven days this will go down as the worst for Thomas Frank.
Another failure in front of home fans against a team they expect to be beating. More dropped points in the Premier League. Worse even than the four-goal debacle at Arsenal.
Another backward step after grains of positivity in a five-goal defeat at Paris Saint-Germain, losing at home to Fulham, who had previously collected only one point on their travels this season.
That was at Brighton on the opening day of the season, but Spurs have won only three Premier League home games in the first 11 months of 2025.
Next weekend, they will have another go against Brentford, the team Frank left to join them. First they must go to Newcastle, and doubts will swirl around the Dane after this latest setback.
After what had gone before, there were few of a Tottenham persuasion in any doubt about the importance of this game.
Spurs players look shellshocked after conceding two quick goals at the start of the game
Vicario was at fault for the second goal after coming miles out of his goal and keeping it in play
'We are determined to deliver a performance you can identify with and get behind,' wrote Frank in his programme notes. Then his team went two goals down within six minutes.
First, a heavy slice of fortune for Fulham when Kenny Tete took aim from the edge of the penalty area and found the net via a huge deflection off Destiny Udogie which completely wrong-footed goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario.
If Vicario was helpless for the first, he was culpable for the second. Racing from his goal to foil Raul Jimenez, the keeper ended up in a left back position from where he tried to play a pass down the flank.
He scuffed it to Josh King, the Fulham teenager with a quick mind and quicker feet who rolled the ball onto the left foot of Harry Wilson, and from there it was duly swerved into the open goal with sweet precision.
Spurs were shellshocked. In the stands, the mood shifted uneasily. Discontent rumbled down from the South Stand. Ironic cheers followed Vicario thereafter every time he caught a cross or kicked one clear.
On the pitch, with confidence damaged, natives restless and captain Cristian Romero serving a one-match ban for five yellow cards, Frank's team creaked and went close to sinking further behind.
Samuel Chukwueze hit a post with a curling left footer from the edge of the box. Chukwueze, on loan from AC Milan and making his first Premier League start after a match-changing cameo as a substitute against Sunderland in the previous game, tormented Pedro Porro.
Tottenham's formation, a 442 shape with the wide midfielders Lucas Bergvall and Mohamed Kudus tucking in behind Randal Kolo Muani and Richarlison to make it 4222, had been positively received in Paris on Wednesday, but it did not work here.
Thomas Frank watched his side take another backwards step with a disappointing home loss
Porro was badly exposed and tormented by Chukwueze, who went close again in the first half, speeding clear and dancing around Vicario only to be denied his first Fulham goal by a sensational sliding recovery tackle from Micky van de Ven.
There were times when Van de Ven, captain in Romero's absence, seemed to be keeping the visitors at bay single-handedly. Another crucial header to beat Jimenez to a cross.
Booed off at half-time, Frank resisted the temptation to make changes, but his team returned with more urgency.
They found a quicker tempo and got further up the pitch.
They got Kudus and Porro onto the ball in better areas. Although Fulham will reflect on how they dropped too deep and lost impetus.
Kolo Muani has improved Tottenham’s goal threat as he has recaptured his full sharpness.
He went close with a header from a Porro cross before Kudus pulled one back, a ferocious strike from a pass by Bergvall.
Frank had three changes already lined up when the goal went in.
He threw them on and suddenly the momentum was theirs until Marco Silva responded with changes to restore an element of control, giving Fulham fresh legs and defensive reinforcements. And, ultimately, victory.
