By Alessandro Schiavone at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Tottenham Hotspur - Fulham FC
Goals: Brennan Johnson 54' (TH), Cairney 67' (F)
Red Card: Cairney 83'
If ever there had been any doubts about Fraser Forster’s ability to offer reliable cover-up for crocked no.1 Guglielmo Vicario those have been impressively dispelled in Tottenham’s 1-1 draw with Fulham on Sunday afternoon.
Because if Ange Postecoglou’s unpredictable men salvaged a point it was mainly down to the former Southampton gloveman passing his second test within four days with at least three crucial rescue acts.
One of the enduring myths espoused by navigated football insiders is that anyone can have game of grace after being thrown back into the limelight following a long time in the cold. It's the adrenaline, they claim. Or the pressure being off.
Only the ones meaning business will follow it up. And Forster showed why his manager ruled out a move for a new goalkeeper in January and why he is on the verge of making his 150th Premier League appearance when Tottenham travel to Bournemouth on Thursday night.
In the dying minutes of the first period he pulled off a world-class instinctive stop to deny Raul Jimenez a dead cert opener from range.
And there were no plans in his personal diary to change that, as he added to his list of great saves when he blocked efforts from both Issa Diop and Alex Iwobi at the far-post after the restart.
Tottenham also wasted good chances to take the lead through Son who was denied by Arsenal one-timer Bernd Lenk one-on-one few seconds after kick-off. Then the German also tipped Radu Dragusin’s bullet header over. It's also anyone's guess how he would have dealt with Emerson's savable free-kick if he had been between Arsen's sticks at London Stadium yesterday. Later in the first period James Maddison saw his hopes of guiding a low free-kick under the wall and into the net dashed by a lunging Fulham toe in the wall.
With both sides failing to apply the Midas Touch, Brennan Johnson finally broke the deadlock for Tottenham when he got on the end of Timo Werner’s cross on 54 minutes.
But it didn’t last as Tom Cairney had his moment of glory when he found the far corner with a left-footed belter following a cutback.
Which then turned into a moment of shame when he was sent off for a horrendous stamp on Kulusevski’s shin from behind on 83 minutes after a VAR review.
But today the accolades were all for 36-year-old Forster who rolled back the years, showing why Lionel Messi once described him as “not human” and “best keeping display I saw” when he single-handedly stopped Barca with Celtic 12 years ago.
For now no one is tearing their hair out over Vicario's absence and Forster's experience means he won't let nerves creep in during significant games.
That being said his personal derby against Bournemouth on Thursday comes at just the right time…