Fulham fans floor Ange Postecoglou with X-rated 5-word taunt as Spurs embarrassed

Fulham claimed all three points as Spurs’ Premier League struggles continued at Craven Cottage with Marco Silva’s men boosting their own European aspirations

Ryan Sessegnon came off the bench to keep Fulham on course for European qualification – and condemn his former club Tottenham to a 15th Premier League defeat of the season.

And the result and the performances highlighted the contrasting campaigns of the two London clubs.

Second-half subs Rodrigo Muniz and Sessegnon scored the goals to lift the Cottagers into eighth place – and only three points behind Manchester City in the likely fifth Champions League slot with an FA Cup quarter-final to come next.

And the feel-good factor extended to Sessegnon and his “emotional” goal. The former England U21 star spent five seasons dogged by injuries and two hamstring surgeries after signing for Tottenham for £25m in August 2019

After returning to Fulham last summer, he scored his goal at Craven Cottage since Boxing Day in 2018 in an exciting end to an ordinary match.

Within a minute of coming on down the left, the 24-year-old fought off Ben Davies before curling a delicious right footed shot into the top corner before a muted celebration. “I enjoyed my time [at Tottenham], five years at the club,” he said. “Playing-wise I didn’t play as often as I’d have liked, mainly because of injuries, but I still respect the club.”

And Silva, who celebrated his 200th game as a Premier League manager, said: “It was a really emotional game for him. It was an emotional comeback the day he signed again for our club after some tough seasons at Spurs.

“It was not because of his quality, it was because of the injuries. Sometimes it can be hard for players to deal with and for Ryan it was a really difficult one. He’s in much better shape now. I know him much better as well, we all know his quality. He’s getting a little bit more chances to show what he can do.

“It was important. Emotional because the first goal at Craven Cottage, against Tottenham as well.”

By contrast, Tottenham remain in 13th place after losing the last match before the international break for the sixth time under Postecoglou. The Aussie had made seven changes to the Europa League team which kept their season alive with a win over AZ Alkmaar last week and it showed. And unfortunately, Spurs have the inconvenience of two more Premier League matches before facing Eintracht Frankfurt on April 10.

More performances like this will make the Aussie even more vulnerable if they do not win a trophy in his second season. The game was a non-event for the first hour.

The only shot on target in the opening half came when Ben Davies could only half-clear Alex Iwobi’s cross to Timothy Castagne but the right-back shot straight at Bernd Leno.

The half-time introductions of Son Heung-Min and Lucas Bergval immediately gave the visitors more attacking energy before James Maddison also came on.

Tottenham should have taken the lead after 69 minutes when Mathys Tel cut in from the right and his left-footed shot was parried by Leno. Maddison chested the rebound to Dominic Solanke on the six-yard box but the £65m striker volleyed over. It was to be a costly miss.

Silva had responded with four subs of his own and two broke the deadlock.

After 78 minutes, Muniz ensured there would not be the first goalless draw of the Postecoglou era when he swept in his ninth game of the season after a Andreas Pereira assist.

And Fulham fans taunted Spurs with: “He left because you’re s***!” after Sessegnon sealed the points.

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