Tottenham 1-2 Fulham (Kudus 59’ | Tete 4’, Wilson 6’)
At the recent Eubank-Benn fight, there was the peculiar sight of people enjoying themselves in the home areas of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Once the football took centre-stage again, supporters were reduced to booing their own goalkeeper.
The most ludicrous calamities of Angeball did not compete with the opening exchanges of the defeat to Fulham, a side not exactly known for scoring goals. It turns out they do not have that trouble when Kenny Tete is left in yards of space, or indeed when Guglielmo Vicario goes marauding and playing passes down the line to allow Harry Wilson to curl one into his empty net.
In six muddled minutes, Thomas Frank was pushed to the brink.
The toxicity that followed, Vicario’s next two touches jeered then ironically cheered for making a basic clearance, marked a new low in this tumultuous, miserable season.
Frank insisted the booing was “unacceptable” and those behind it “can’t be true Tottenham fans”. Vicario’s error was not on the manager, nor really on the defenders the goalkeeper berated for failing to get back onto the line. Micky van de Ven spared him further blushes with a last-ditch tackle when Samuel Chukwueze had rounded him. For the home crowd, they had seen this kind of display one too many times.
There are few immediate alternatives to the Italian stopper. There are reservations about deputy Antonin Kinsky’s long-term future. Brandon Austin has only ever made one senior appearance for the club, while Alfie Whiteman has quit football to become a photographer.
The strange paradox of Vicario is that he is capable of producing heroic performances like the one against Monaco in the Champions League, his eight stops from all angles earning an unlikely point. The tragicomedy at Arsenal began with a point-blank stop from Declan Rice before conceding four. Before that came the error at Brighton, the scrutiny over his positioning at Leeds.
His future had not been seen as under threat in January, when Spurs are expected to spend. That may change.
In the 29-year-old’s first season, the main question marks were over his set pieces. It was suggested he was not getting enough protection from referees. There have been fraught moments with fans before as they grew frustrated over his distribution. It never felt quite so poisonous as this and it is impossible not to wonder what it will do to his confidence.
Frank has to consider what to do next, not least because his goalkeeper seems to represent the broken spirit of a dressing room so used to these performances here that half-time and full-time torrents of abuse are routine. Fulham fans, by contrast, taunted their old Brentford nemesis with chants of “sacked in the morning” and his team, equally damningly, with “champions of Europe? You’re taking the piss”.
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Vicario is but one symptom of all this. The boos were at him and yet somehow around him, a venting of fury at a team who have won one league game at home – against Burnley – all season.
Frank’s system was again too narrow and overloaded on the right. Spurs failed to register a shot on target until Mohammed Kudus’ superb half-volley in the 59th minute – just as it was with Richarlison’s freak goal at the Emirates.