Football: Soccer-Lacklustre Tottenham slump to heavy defeat at Fulham

LONDON (Reuters) -Fulham put a sizeable dent in Tottenham Hotspur’s Premier League top-four hopes as in-form Rodrigo Muniz’s double earned them an impressive 3-0 victory at Craven Cottage on Saturday.

Tottenham could have moved above Aston Villa into fourth place in the standings with a win but apart from a brief spell before halftime were lackadaisical and could have no complaints.

Muniz broke the deadlock in the 42nd minute and scored again just past the hour mark to finish off Tottenham after Sasa Lukic had doubled Fulham’s lead shortly after the interval.

It completed a notable home double for Fulham over Tottenham having also knocked them out of the League Cup.

Tottenham remain in fifth place with 53 points from 28 games while Fulham are in 12th spot with 38 points from 29 games.

A crushing 4-0 win at Villa last weekend had given Tottenham the momentum in the race for Champions League qualification but they came down to earth with a bump.

The only surprise in a chance-packed first half was that it remained scoreless for 42 minutes.

Fulham started with far more urgency with Andreas Pereira in the thick of the action for the hosts.

His fourth-minute shot took a deflection off Cristian Romero and fizzed inches wide and soon afterwards when Spurs keeper Guglielmo Vicario spilled a low cross into his path he again was denied by a superb block from Romero.

Vicario also made smart saves from Lukic and Willian before Tottenham finally began to offer some threat.

Son Heung-min blazed one chance over, Brennan Johnson shot straight at Bernd Leno after a slick passing move and Radu Dragusin, making his first start for Spurs, dragged an effort well wide having found himself in a great position.

James Maddison also went close for the visitors but Fulham went ahead when Antonee Robinson’s superb low cross took out the entire Tottenham defence and Muniz’s touch was perfect before drilling his shot across Vicario and into the net.

It took only four minutes of the second half for Fulham to double their advantage as Alex Iwobi fed a pass to the over-lapping Timothy Castagne and his low cross was touched in by Lukic.

Tottenham were reeling and were on the canvas just past the hour mark as 22-year-old Brazilian Muniz poached his second goal of the game and seventh in his last seven, bundling in after Calvin Bassey’s shot hit the post.

Tottenham were spared further embarrassment a minute later when Joao Palhinha’s shot was glanced in by substitute Raul Jimenez but he was ruled offside.

Spurs had a few late chances with substitutes Richarlison and Timo Werner but failed to score in a league game for the first time all season.

(Reporting by Martyn HermanEditing by Christian Radnedge)