Chris Sutton expects Tottenham Hotspur to defeat Fulham on Sunday, but there is one Spurs player he is concerned about.
Tottenham have not had long to rest since their draw in the Europa League, as they take on Fulham in an early afternoon kick-off on Sunday.
Having beaten Manchester City 4-0 in their most recent Premier League match, Spurs find themselves in a promising position, three points off their cross-city rivals, Arsenal and Chelsea, who sit third and fourth in the league table.
While Spurs managed a clean sheet in their last league outing, the main talking point has been their outstanding attacking play. They are the top-scoring team in the English top flight, with 27 goals, three more than Liverpool who have the second most, and they have created 42 big chances overall.
And unlike in times past, Spurs are no longer reliant on an individual to score most of their goals, as despite finding the back of the net more than any other team, their joint top scorers, James Maddison and Brennan Johnson, have five league goals each, which shows that Spurs can be dangerous without having one key goalscorer.
Chris Sutton has predicted a Tottenham win, but he has concerns over whether Fraser Forster, who replaces the injured Guglielmo Vicario, can adapt to Ange Postecoglou’s style of play.
He said: “I love watching Tottenham and what they do. They were missing Micky van de ven and Cristian Romero against Manchester City last week but went to Etihad Stadium, played brilliantly and kept a clean sheet too.
“The big worry for Spurs is that Guglielmo Vicario got injured in that game. Fraser Forster is an excellent goalkeeper who has had a great career but he is not renowned for being brilliant with his feet.
“Forster can appear a bit clunky on the ball, a little bit like I did when I played for Chelsea, and that could be an issue because of the way Ange Postecoglou wants Spurs to play.
“Fulham were on the opposite end of a four-goal scoreline at home to Wolves last weekend but, going off what I have seen from them this season, that is likely to be a one-off.
“The Cottagers have scored in every game this season apart from their opening-weekend defeat at Old Trafford, and they will be dangerous here too.
“So, I don’t think this will be easy for Spurs but if their forwards play like they did against City, they will come out on top again.”
Despite his reservation over Forster, Sutton has predicted Tottenham to secure a 3-1 victory against their fellow Londoners.
Every goalkeeper has their flaws and this is as true about Vicario as anyone. The Italian shot-stopper has faced a great amount of criticism for failing to deal with set pieces, which has seen Spurs concede a number of goals from both free kicks and corners.
Forster may not be known for his ability with the ball at his feet, but former Spurs man, Joe Hart, also struggled in this area, yet played as Postecogolou’s first-choice goalkeeper at Celtic.
With no other realistic starting options in the position, it is important for everyone to get behind Forster, and with him successfully completing 30 of the 36 passes he played against Roma, perhaps his distribution is not the ‘big worry’ Sutton has proclaimed it to be, only time will tell.
The post Chris Sutton predicts a four-goal game between Tottenham and Fulham appeared first on Spurs Web.
