Hojbjerg and Kane ensure Spurs grab
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 2 Hojbjerg (40), Kane (75) FULHAM 1 Mitrovic (83)
Antonio Conte called on Tottenham to be more clinical despite extending their unbeaten start to the season with victory over Fulham.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Harry Kane scored in each half as Spurs made it six top-flight matches without defeat this term.
Kane’s strike with quarter of an hour left appeared to put the game to bed, but Aleksandar Mitrovic reduced the deficit with seven minutes left to set up a nervy finale.
“For sure the performance, yeah I like the performance,” Spurs boss Conte said. “Also against Southampton we had a good performance.
“If I have to find a situation that we need to improve, it is to be more clinical because when you create so many chances, you have to score but we scored two goals disallowed, then the crossbar.
“Yeah, I enjoyed a lot to see my players play the ball with quality and personality.”
Son Heung-min saw his goal drought extend into a sixth match, but looked back to his usual best against Fulham with an effort against the crossbar and a cross-cum-shot disallowed for offside.
Conte added: “This is not only for Sonny (in the matches), but also the training sessions. We have Fraser (Forster) that sometimes he made a fantastic save to him in the training session and sometimes he is struggling to score, but this is a period.
“I continue to tell you I am not worried because when I see this type of performance from my players, Sonny included, I am not worried. I know they are going to score many goals.”
Kane achieved another milestone with his tap-in from Ryan Sessegnon’s cross – his 188th strike in the Premier League, moving him beyond Andy Cole into third outright in the all-time list.
It was also his 43rd London derby goal in the Premier League, which
puts him level with previous record-holder Thierry Henry.
Richarlison should have celebrated his full debut with a goal, but hit the inside of a post with a secondhalf effort and also saw a stoppage-time effort ruled out for offside.
He was one of five changes made with Clement Lenglet also brought in for his full debut and both received praise from their manager.
“I think they showed they are really good players who can improve us a lot to become stronger and to also make the squad become more deep and give me the possibility to make rotation without a drop in quality,” Conte said. “Lenglet showed to be a really good player with personality, with quality.
“Richy is a warrior, a fighter and we need this type of player to improve this type of aspect.”
Fulham manager Marco Silva praised the fight of his side despite admitting they were far from their best.
He said: “It was good to see at least we fought until the end. It is good coming here, playing a very good side, even not playing our best level we matched them until the last minute.
“I truly believe with a different performances from ourselves we can do much better.”
SPURS:
Lloris 6; Romero 7, Dier 6, Lenglet 6; Royal 7, Hojbjerg 8, Bentancur 6, Sessegnon 7; Richarlison 8, Son 7 (Perisic 84); Kane 8 (Kulusevski 78, 6). Unused subs – Doherty, Skipp, Sanchez, Forster, Davies, Tanganga, Bissouma. FULHAM:
Leno 8; Tete 7, Adarabioyo 6, Ream 6, Robinson 6 (Mbabu 29, 6); Reed 6, Palhinha 6 (Vinicius 85); Reid 6 (James 61, 6), Pereira 6 (Cairney 61, 6), Kebano 6 (Willian 60, 6); Mitrovic 7. Unused subs – Rodak, Duffy, Chalobah, Diop.