(Football news) Over the weekend, Tottenham Hotspurs crushed Aston Villa 4-0, regaining control of their Champions League destiny. Meanwhile, the Cottagers lost 2-1 to Wolverhampton Wanderers away from home.
Fulham failed to capitalize on their first-half opportunities at Molineux last Saturday, and Marco Silva’s team was made to pay for it. The merciless edge that Fulham displayed in their recent victories over Bournemouth, Manchester United, and Brighton & Hove Albion was absent.
A late own goal by Tom Cairney and a close-range finish by Rayan Ait-Nouri gave Wolves a comfortable lead halfway through the second half. Although Alex Iwobi scored for the Cottagers deep into injury time, it was too little, too late.
Silva was under no illusions that his side hit the self-destruct button at Molineux, where they were punished for profligacy and a sloppy second half, and an unspectacular end to the season awaits the 12th-placed Cottagers, who are 14 points clear of the relegation line and eight adrift of the European places.
A late charge for Europa Conference League football remains a mathematical possibility, but Silva’s men should be content in mid-table obscurity between now and the end of the campaign and head into Saturday’s derby having scored in each of their last six Premier League matches.
Furthermore, Fulham have accrued 25 of their 35 points this season at Craven Cottage, where they have triumphed over West Ham United (5-0) and Arsenal (2-1) in their last two Premier League London derbies, but they have never won three consecutive all-capital clashes at home in the top flight.
While Fulham’s jaunt to the West Midlands last weekend was an unsuccessful one, Tottenham blew the race for Champions League football wide open, knocking down a few more walls of the crumbling Villa Park fortress with a four-star second-half display.
Strikes from James Maddison and Brennan Johnson preceded a deserved John McGinn red card, which virtually extinguished the Lions’ hopes of an improbable turnaround, and Postecoglou’s men made the result more emphatic in injury time through Son Heung-min and Timo Werner.
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