Tottenham Hotspur vs Fulham
Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham are set to trade tackles at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in an all-London Premier League showdown.
Despite being reduced to ten men, Tottenham eked out a 1-0 win at promoted Luton Town before the international break, maintaining a near-perfect eight-game Premier League start under Ange Postecoglou (W6, D2). As one of only two unbeaten sides at England’s top table, ‘Spurs’ headed into the break as the joint-leaders with 20 points under their belt. Another win here over cross-town rivals would see Postecoglou, the first back-to-back Manager of the Month award winner since Jurgen Klopp in 2019/20, become the first coach in Premier League history to grab 23 points in his first nine games in charge. Interestingly, before winning at Kenilworth Road last time out, Tottenham had scored 2+ goals in their opening eight league matches, which has been the case in three of their most recent four top-flight H2Hs on home turf.
On the other hand, Fulham must go above and beyond to upset the apple cart and post their first away league win over ‘Spurs’ since 2013 (D1, L3 since). But they look perfectly positioned to do it, considering Marco Silva is the only manager to have beaten Postecoglou this season, doing so via penalties in the opening League Cup round. The ‘Cottagers’ bounced back from a two-game scoreless run in the Premier League (D1, L1) with an emphatic 3-1 home win over basement boys Sheffield United last time out, outperforming their three-goal tally from their previous four top-flight outings combined. Defensive-wise, the visitors have blown hot and cold on the road this term, racking up two clean sheets on their four Premier League travels while conceding 2+ goals on the other two (W1, D2, L2).