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LONDON: Jose Mourinho criticized Tottenham’s ‘avoidable’ mistakes and lack of killer instinct after Fulham’s Ivan Cavaleiro saved a 1-1 draw on Wednesday.
Harry Kane had the hosts in the lead in the first half at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but Cavaleiro struck in the finals to leave Mourinho frustrated.
Tottenham have won just two of their last eight league games and sit in sixth place.
A victory over third-placed Fulham would have taken them to third place ahead of Manchester City, who had four consecutive league wins when Phil Foden claimed a 1-0 win over Brighton earlier on Wednesday.
Whether Spurs – six points behind leaders Manchester United – will be seen as title contenders for much longer must be questioned after this botched display.
“Once again, we concede a totally avoidable goal. You have to keep a clean sheet, not to make mistakes. The markers are there. There wasn’t even an advantage in terms of numbers, ”said Mourinho.
“We have plenty of opportunities to kill matches. In other cases, especially away, we win but we don’t have the ambition to reach the goal and kill the game.
“There are things that are individual mistakes. We have bad results and we should avoid these results. “
Cavaleiro’s leveler dramatically ended the feud between Mourinho and Fulham manager Scott Parker, which was sparked when the Aston Villa coronavirus outbreak meant the postponement of Spurs’ planned trip to Villa Park on Wednesday.
Instead, Tottenham’s match against Fulham – initially canceled in December due to cases of Covid in the Cottagers’ squad – was moved to Monday to help ease a possible match stack for Mourinho’s side.
Parker said it was “outrageous” for his team to be forced to play on such a short notice.
Mourinho fired back, claiming he would only feel sorry for Fulham if they played a weakened team.
He would therefore have noted with interest that Fulham had named a strong side with nine of the 11 who played their last Premier League game on Boxing Day.
But it was Parker who had the last word and he said, “I’m very proud of this team for what we’ve been through. We talk a lot, everyone assumes what happened. I know what we’ve been through these past two weeks.
“This match was supposed to be scheduled 16 days ago – for 10 days some of these boys were locked in their homes (self-isolation).
“We had players there who had gone through a day of training. What I liked the most was a desire and a real quality sometimes.
Fulham seemed capable of troubling Tottenham from the start and André-Frank Zambo Anguissa’s fierce strike forced a good save from Hugo Lloris.
Alphonse Areola made an even better save to push Son Heung-min’s curler over the bar, but Tottenham struck first in the 25th minute.
Harry Winks’ pass found Sergio Reguilon on the left wing and he whipped a perfect one-inch cross into the six-yard penalty area, where Kane dived to propel a spectacular header past Areola for his 18th goal. the season.
Even the prolific Kane isn’t perfect and the Tottenham star wasted a good chance to double the lead moments later when he passed cross from Serge Aurier.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg was guilty of a bad miss by shooting directly at Areola from Kane’s pass.
Son held his head in his hands after the South Korean forward broke free, only to see his low strike hit the far post and bounce back to Areola.
Those misfires proved crucial as Fulham snatched an equalizer in the 73rd minute.
Ademola Lookman sent a superb cross to the left side of the Tottenham zone and Cavaleiro moved between Reguilon and Eric Dier to plant a brilliant header in front of Lloris.
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