Postecoglou tunes out injury 'violins' as Spurs are slowed by Cairney

It would be tempting to talk of Tottenham at least being predictable in their unpredictability, of the way they cannot but follow up a great result with a disappointing one, of the inevitability of them, having beaten Manchester City 4-0 the previous weekend, failing to beat Fulham at home.

- Jonathan Wilson

But actually the story yesterday was far more about Fulham, how well they played and how mystifying it was that they didn't take all three points having had much the better of the majority of the game.

What made their performance all the more impressive was that they did it without the midfielder Andreas Pereira. Marco Silva denied that he had been left out after giving an interview to Brazilian media in which he seemed to suggest he would quite fancy a move to Marseille to play under Roberto De Zerbi. "He's going to be back to help the team like he's been helping us every week," Silva said. "I don't make decisions around interviews. I don't protect players because of social media. My decisions come from daily sessions with the players. He was not ready. It was a technical decision from myself."