VAR is the Celebration Police

Spurs beat Fulham despite having two goals ruled out | Previewing a return to the Champions League against Marseille

On a day when fully half the lineup had a decent chance to score, Spurs wound up with a narrow scoreline that didn't accurately reflect the dominant display over Fulham.

Tottenham 2 - 1 Fulham

Conte had hinted that there would be some rotation for the Fulham match, and we saw five total changes from the starting XI that lined up against West Ham midweek. Two of the changes came from players returning from injuries (Cristian Romero and Rodrigo Bentancur) while the other three were purely rotational. Richarlison got his first start in the PL, as did Clément Lenglet. Ryan Sessegnon and Ivan Perišić have already been swapping starts this season, and that trend continued with Sess getting the nod against Fulham—while Emerson Royal has started every game at the opposite wingback flank.

Bentancur brought some much-needed stability and progression to the midfield compared to Yves Bissouma's performance during his lackluster first start against West Ham, and that freed Pierre-Emile Højbjerg up to revert to a more attacking role. PEH would end up scoring Spurs' first goal of the match after some tidy and composed footwork in the box. I'm used to seeing him score bangers from outside the box, so that was a pleasant surprise to see him pull off that kind of calm, routine-like shot.

Harry Kane scored the second and final Spurs goal after tapping in a rebounded shot (cross?) from Sessegnon. Since Bernd Leno had the last touch before Kane, no assist for Sess, sadly.

We had plenty of goal-scoring opportunities before, between, and after the goals. PEH is somewhat surprisingly our second-highest goal-scorer so far this season behind Kane (tied with our old pal Own Goal) and even more surprisingly, Eric Dier nearly joined him with a tally of two goals. He was not as cool and collected in the box as Højbjerg, however, and sent his shot well over the crossbar. Sessegnon also had a good chance, and Son Heung-min had several. It's disappointing that Sonny still hasn't made it onto the scoresheet, but I don't think anyone would argue that he had perhaps his best performance of the season since the opening day match, when he notched an assist. Richarlison was also unlucky not to get a goal (the goal post thwarted both him and Sonny), but his assist for PEH made his first start a successful one nevertheless.

As alluded to in this post's title, VAR was up to its usual killjoy antics. We had two goals chalked off for offside situations. At least, I think that was the case for the first one, in which Kane appeared not to actually get a touch on Son's free kick cross (shot?) before it sailed into the net. I would have dearly loved for that goal to have counted—and to have counted for Sonny—but alas. My understanding is that even though Kane didn't touch the ball, his attempt on the ball from an offside position was deemed to have affected the play. Kind of a frustrating one but by the letter of the law, probably the right decision. The second ruled-out goal was a much more straightforward case of Sessegnon being offside in the buildup to Richarlison's goal. Can't argue with that one, but it was also a pity because Richarlison's goal celebration was so joyful. Supposedly his yellow card for taking his shirt off in the celebration will be rescinded since the goal didn't count, but we'll see. It really does feel like you can't fully celebrate a goal anymore with VAR waiting to spoil the party.

Aleksandar Mitrović also rained on Spurs parade by getting a goal back with plenty of time left to keep the match interesting. After a smart switching through ball from Kenny Tete, Mitrović was able to pull back on Romero and curl a shot into the top corner. Royal tried to make a last-ditch tackle and Hugo Lloris leaped for the ball, but there was too much quality in the shot to prevent the goal. Another pretty sequence of passing from Fulham led to a deflected shot from Mitrović, and only a superb save from Lloris prevented the equalizer. Hugo had to save a similarly deflected shot earlier in the second half, and it's a pity his strong performance wasn't rewarded with a clean sheet. I must reluctantly admit that Fulham's keeper, Leno, also had a great match and kept the scoreline respectable for the visitors.

Overall, we looked much more nimble in attack with Romero and Bentancur back in the side. I was also pleased to see Lenglet put in a strong performance for his first PL start, and the rest of the rotational starts and substitutions worked out well. Kane even got to rest for the last fifteen or so minutes! I'm so used to him just never subbing out that it feels completely novel, but it's going to be increasingly necessary as the overloaded fixture schedule progresses. One last note on Kane:  he's now free and clear in third place for all-time PL goals, only behind Wayne Rooney and Alan Shearer.

Keeping our unbeaten streak alive in the Premier League is a positive way to head into the Champions League midweek!

The ghosts of Arsenal past

That's just my dramatic way of saying that Olympique de Marseille, our first opponent in the Champions League group stage, is full of ex-Arsenal players (and one current loanee). Otherwise, there aren't a lot of familiar names to anyone who doesn't watch Ligue 1 regularly—and I do not watch Ligue 1 at all, so there you go.

I caught a few of Marseille's matches in the Europa / Conference League last season (they dropped down to ECL after the EL group stage and made it to the ECL semi-finals), but it seems like they've had a fair amount of squad turnover this summer, so hard to say exactly what kind of team we'll be facing. For what it's worth, they're currently 2nd in their domestic league table. Former Arsenal and Manchester United player Alexis Sánchez has gotten off to a strong start at Marseille, netting three goals in his first five matches.

The good news is that one of Marseille's most potent attackers, Dimitri Payet, is likely out until mid-September with a calf injury. The other good news is that we get to play the home fixture first, not get thrown straight into the belly of the beast that is a Marseille away match—which typically involves a lot of fire-based choreo from the ultras and the occasional pitch invasion.

I personally think that Marseille are going to be our toughest opponent in the group stage, especially on current form, so I would be fine with Conte starting a fairly strong lineup, getting the result wrapped up early, and then making some substitutions, rather than beginning with a wholesale rotation of the starting XI. If he doesn't want to risk Kane, Richarlison is a great option to start at striker. I'm hoping Son can use this game as an opportunity to finally get a goal and then take that momentum back to the PL match against Manchester City on the weekend. I would be most open to multiple tweaks in the defense; give Lenglet another start to reward his great game against Fulham and keep Ben Davies fit, and give Davinson Sánchez another runout, because we definitely don't need to be risking Romero for this game. I realize this lowkey sounds like me offering Big Dav up for slaughter, but really I'm just concerned that Cuti didn't look totally himself on Saturday towards the end of the Fulham game—watch the Mitrović goal highlight clip for evidence. Put him back in the bubble wrap for another game, please. If anyone in the squad is in desperate need of a rest, it's probably Royal, so perhaps we could see Matt Doherty get his first start of the season.

I'm really looking forward to this game, even knowing that City are lurking in the background for the weekend match. Fortunately, they will also be in CL action midweek. I just wish we had the same level of squad depth as they do—it's honestly unparalleled in world football. More on that in the City preview later this week.

For now, let's just enjoy being back in the Champions League!

COYS

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