Tottenham's Premier League woes continued on Sunday afternoon after they fell to a 2-0 defeat away at Fulham. Following Thursday's 3-1 win over AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League that secured a place in the quarter-finals of the competition, Ange Postecoglou made seven changes to his team to take on Fulham.

Players such as Destiny Udogie, Rodrigo Bentancur, Mathys Tel and Brennan Johnson came into the team, with Archie Gray handed a rare start in midfield after his heroics in defence since December. In a first half with a real lack of opportunities on goal, it wasn't until the 34th minute when Fulham's Timothy Castagne had the first effort on target after profiting from a Ben Davies clearance.

Clearly with the words of Postecoglou ringing in their ears, Tottenham were much better at the start of the second half and threatened on a couple of occasions through Dominic Solanke. The striker then hit the ball over the crossbar from six yards out midway inside the second half after Tel had forced Bernd Leno into a good save.

Tottenham may have dominated proceedings after the break but it was Fulham who opened the scoring late on as Rodrigo Muniz finished off Andreas Pereira's pass in the 78th minute with a tidy finish in the box. It was to get even worse for the visitors just prior to full-time as ex-Spurs man Ryan Sessegnon completed the scoring with an unstoppable finish to secure all three points for the Cottagers.

Here are five things we spotted in the game at Craven Cottage:

All change

Despite not having a game next week due to the first international break of 2025 taking place, Postecoglou resisted the temptation of naming the majority of the XI that faced AZ in midweek and instead made wholesale alterations for the trip across the capital. It was seven changes in total as the boss opted to switch things about after very little time between the AZ and Fulham fixtures.

Whereas in previous months he did not have the numbers to freshen things up due to a host of injuries, Postecoglou is not in a similar boat now as the vast majority of his squad are at his disposal. Micky van de Ven's absence from the starting XI was perhaps not a shock as Spurs continue to manage his minutes after his injury frustrations this term.

The head coach's selection resulted in Johnson and Tel getting some much-needed game time in attack, something of which both would have been desperate for after Wilson Odobert's crucial double on Thursday night in the win over AZ. We may well see the same again with the team selection next month in the Wolves and Nottingham Forest fixtures directly after the Europa League quarter-final double-header against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Gray in midfield

The headline news for Tottenham fans from Postecoglou's team selection was the decision to start Gray in midfield. Viewed as his long-term position despite playing the majority of his young career as a right-back or centre-back, fans have had to wait quite some time to see the teenager in the middle of the park.

It did initially appear that the Durham-born had been given the nod in midfield at Everton back in January, only for him to end up in defence as Postecoglou uncharacteristically switched to a back three. Finally given his shot in the middle against Fulham with the boss electing to change all three of his midfielders, the 19-year-old was assured with his performance and certainly didn't look out of place in the middle of the park.

Gray was even the player tasked with taking Tottenham's set-pieces in the first half in the absence of Pedro Porro and James Maddison from the starting XI. Gray would complete the 90 minutes but he would play the final 22 minutes at centre-back following Cristian Romero's substitution.

Romero floored

Romero proved to be a frustrating figure for Fulham fans on Sunday afternoon with the Spurs man going unpunished by the referee on one particular occasion. With 28 minutes on the clock, Willian wanted a free-kick on the edge of the Tottenham box after going down under the challenge of the World Cup winner.

It was not given and it was something that didn't sit well with the player, Fulham boss Marco Silva and fans. What probably didn't help matters is that Djed Spence gave Raul Jimenez a push with both hands in the box a matter of moments earlier and no penalty was given.

Following that challenge on Willian, the Brazilian was having quite the discussion with Romero over it and he was even still debating it with the referee when Fulham had a corner not long after. Fulham fans had something to cheer about later in the half as Romero was sent flying to the ground when tussling for the ball with powerful Cottagers defender Calvin Bassey.

The Nigerian international basically used his strength to shove his opponent to the ground with one hand as they competed for the ball. After seeing their penalty and free-kick claims waved away earlier, the home fans certainly appreciated their defender getting one over Romero.

Romero and Bassey would exchange words once again in the second half after the defender caught Tel on the ankle after the referee had already sounded his whistle. The Argentina international was not happy with the challenge that left his teammate on the ground and it once again saw the duo clash.

Bournemouth repeat

It wasn't a shock at all to see Postecoglou switch things about at half-time following a really poor first half from Tottenham. Leno was not troubled at all in the Fulham goal and the visitors very rarely threatened in an attacking sense as Fulham dominated.

Yves Bissouma and Johnson were the two players who made way, with Lucas Bergvall and Son Heung-min introduced. Bissouma's substitution was no surprise going on how poor he was in possession as he misplaced a number of passes to his teammates.

Johnson could also have no complaints after failing to challenge Antonee Robinson down Fulham's left side. Tel, on the opposite flank, at least ran at Castagne on a couple of occasions, including one midway inside the first half where he got the better of him but elected to put in a wayward cross when getting a shot away on goal was the better option.

Postecoglou's half-time change was a carbon copy of seven days earlier when the duo were replaced by Son and Bergvall when trailing 1-0 at home to Bournemouth. Both players need to be offering so much more in their game time if they want to be starting matches as there is now plenty of competition for a place in the Tottenham XI.

Sessegnon reaction

It was a familiar face who had the final say on the game in west London as Sessegnon secured all three points for Fulham. Joining Tottenham in the summer of 2019 but only playing 57 games for the club due to a catalogue of different injuries, the left-sided player returned to former club Fulham in the summer.

Entering the fray in the final few minutes of the contest, the 24-year-old piled on the misery for Tottenham with a brilliant finish after capitalising on an unaware Spence before holding off Davies and firing high into the corner of the net. A moment for Sessegnon to celebrate after helping Fulham to another big win in their quest for European football, the ex-England Under-21 international opted against celebrating and instead just walked calmly towards the home fans with no emotion on his face before he was mobbed by his teammates.

It was a classy moment from Sessegnon as nobody would have blamed him for celebrating going on what he has been through over the past six years.

Wilson Odobert's starring role and how is Djed Spence not in the England squad? - Click here to listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham

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