Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Fulham: 5 talking points as Mourinho's men throw another lead away | Premier League 2020-21

#3 Fulham were well worth their point

Fulham worked hard throughout the game and deserved their point.

For as much as Tottenham threw their win away tonight, Fulham were well worth their point. Scott Parker clearly didn’t set his side up with the idea of playing not to lose, and to a man, their eleven players were excellent.

Defenders Ola Aina, Joachim Andersen, and Tosin Adarabioyo were able to keep Harry Kane and Son Heung-min largely quiet. Midfielders Harrison Reed and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa worked extremely hard, while attackers Bobby Cordova-Reid and Ivan Cavaleiro never stopped running.

The big difference-maker in this match, however, was substitute Ademola Lookman. When he was introduced, Fulham immediately had more attacking impetus, and it was his run and cross that led to Cavaleiro’s excellently-taken goal.

The point doesn’t lift Fulham away from the bottom three. But they’re now only two points away from Brighton and have two more games to play than Graham Potter’s team.

Basically, there’s every chance that Parker’s side could stay up now, and if they pull it off, the rookie boss deserves a lot of credit. However, so do Fulham’s recruitment team. They’ve replaced practically their whole defense – and it might well save their Premier League status.

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#4 Why did Tottenham not unleash Dele?

Tottenham's Dele Alli was once again conspicuous by his absence.

Given Tottenham’s clear issues with creativity – particularly in the second half of this game – one major question has to be why Jose Mourinho didn’t introduce Dele Alli into the fray.

The England international had a very impressive match at the weekend. And while it was against weak opposition in the form of non-league Marine, everything in the build-up to this match suggested that Mourinho was willing to unleash him against Fulham.

Instead, Mourinho chose Moussa Sissoko on the right side of his attack, with Harry Winks and Tanguy Ndombele playing ahead of holding man Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. And when it came time to introduce some substitutes, Erik Lamela and Carlos Vinicius were instead sent on.

So what does this mean for Dele’s future at Tottenham? In all honesty, the likely answer is that his career in North London is over. Mourinho will likely deny this when he’s asked, but with links to his old boss Mauricio Pochettino – now at Paris St. Germain – not going away, a move seems like the best thing for all parties right now.

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#5 Should the game have gone ahead at all?

Scott Parker described the decision to play tonight's game as "scandalous," but the issue is down to the Premier League.

Prior to tonight’s game, the big controversy was around it happening in the first place. Tonight should’ve seen Tottenham face Aston Villa, while Fulham were left to prepare for a match against Chelsea on Friday evening.

Instead, when Villa were forced to postpone due to a bad COVID-19 outbreak in their squad, the Premier League decided to shift things around a little.

Fulham’s game with Tottenham on December 30th had been postponed due to a COVID-19 outbreak in their squad, so in order to avoid fixture congestion, that game was moved into this spot instead. And in turn, their clash with Chelsea was moved to Saturday.

Fulham boss Scott Parker was thoroughly unimpressed with this turn of events – labeling the decision “scandalous.” But after securing a point, it’d be interesting to know his feelings on the situation.

Essentially, the Premier League had little choice here, as Tottenham’s schedule going forward is such that there would’ve been no gaps for them to play two postponed fixtures. It’s worth asking, however, why Premier League fixtures are being postponed in the first place.

When the 2020-21 season began, the word was that as long as a side could field at least 14 players, then a match would go ahead. This theory that was blown out of the water in early December when Newcastle United were allowed to postpone their match with Villa.

Given that the COVID-19 pandemic is not going away anytime soon – and the Premier League is desperate to continue – then we should expect more issues like this in the near future.

Essentially, the league should’ve come to some kind of consensus – perhaps even forfeits – to avoid this, and as they haven’t, we’re left with somewhat of a mess.