Spurs v Fulham - preview from the press box

Our all-new match preview for the 2018/19 season where we'll tap into 'Fleet Street's' finest for their thoughts and insight - next up, Fulham at Wembley in our first home match of the Premier League campaign on Saturday.

Dean Jones

Dean is the Football Insider at Bleacher Report and a regular at Craven Cottage.

Fulham’s opener against Palace...

"We had six new players starting and were really good for the first half-hour or so, dominated and created good chances but their goalkeeper made a couple of good saves and then at the back end of the first half, Palace started to get to grips with the game, scored a goal and changed the momentum."

A wake-up call? "We had six debutants whereas Palace know each other inside-out, so not many of us turned up expecting Fulham to win. I personally thought a draw would have been a good result. We played pretty well, on another day you score one of those early chances and it might have been a different game."

This game...

"It will be an interesting one because we are used to having the ball a lot, but there is going to be times this season that isn’t going to be the case. I think Fulham will still try to play football against Spurs but it’s going to be difficult. I remember the FA Cup game (February, 2017) and everyone was quite optimistic but we lost 3-0 and that really was a wake-up call - that was the difference between being a decent Championship side and a proper Premier League team.

"I think that game might actually work in our favour because at least Jokanovic has experienced that and a few players will remember it, so we probably won’t have the same approach this time around. I think we will be more cautious, a bit more wary of the fact that Spurs are a top four Premier League team, a completely different class all over the pitch. We’ve got good areas as well but as an overall team, we’re still very raw. It’s going to be an interesting one - every Fulham fan is thinking Harry Kane will finally get his first August goal, it’s absolutely nailed on!"

Fulham’s key man...

“We’ve a new player Jean Michael Seri in midfield who is different class. You can see why bigger clubs than us were after him. Since we lost Mousa Dembele to you (2012), we’ve never really had a midfielder of that quality and straight after the Palace game people were saying ‘he’s our new Dembele’. Tom Cairney’s obviously very good, but Seri is the first player who has come close to being that Dembele-type player. I think he’ll relish the opportunity to go into a stadium like Wembley against a big club like Spurs and he gives us half-a-chance in that midfield battle, without him I’d be pretty concerned."

Key area...

"I think it will be when we are in possession. The biggest problem we had against Palace was when we started to look dangerous but lost the ball and how quickly Palace were able to transition. Spurs will be able to do that quicker and more effectively, so I worry when we lose the ball. Kane is obviously a big threat, especially as we are short in defence at the moment. We haven’t got Tim Ream and Alfie Mawson (both injured) so our defence is our weakest area at the moment. I just fear that you’ll hit us on the break and you’ll get quite a lot of joy out of it.”

Prediction...

“Not an easy one for me because I don’t think we are going to win this game - I’ll say 2-0 to Spurs.”