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Chris Kamara Posted 17th November 2008 view comments

Harry Redknapp will have probably learned more about his players at Fulham than in any other game in his short time at Tottenham.

I was at Craven Cottage on Saturday and for the first half they were poor.

That was the Tottenham that got Juande Ramos the sack, not the Tottenham that had gone five games unbeaten, drawn at Arsenal and beat Liverpool, twice.

Redknapp: the real Spurs

Redknapp: the real Spurs

To me it looked like they thought it was going to be easy. They were too casual by far and although you can't take anything away from Fulham, that first-half display proved to be their downfall.

I have to admit I ducked out of Harry's way after the game, but I am sure he got stuck into them at the break. He made changes at the break and it did get better, but by then Spurs were playing catch-up - and you can't afford to do that in the Premier League.

That was the Tottenham that got Juande Ramos the sack, not the Tottenham that had gone five games unbeaten, drawn at Arsenal and beat Liverpool, twice.

Chris Kamara
Quotes of the week

Luca Modric was a certainty to be hauled off. He tried two nutmegs in the first 10 minutes, was skipping out of challenges all the time, while Tom Huddlestone kept trying to pull a worldy out of the bag and could easily have stayed in the dressing room as well. Mind you, no-one could really complain had they not made the second half.

It doesn't detract from the brilliant start Harry has made, but it was proof if he needed any, of what he is really dealing with at White Hart Lane.

You can't take anything away from Fulham either. Roy Hodgson started off by getting them solid in defence - where Brede Hangeland was outstanding - and now Andy Johnson is scoring goals, they are more of a threat.

They are under no illusions though, they are one of the 15 or so in the pack and I think any improvement on last season's great escape will do them just fine.

Everyone expected Tottenham's run to continue, but credit to Fulham, they set about the task in hand in exactly the right manner - and were well worth their victory. But they were given a helping hand.

Kammy's picks of the weekend...

GAME - Arsenal 0-2 Aston Villa
I watched the Bolton-Liverpool game and that was entertaining, but for impact it had to be Aston Villa's win at The Emirates. Arsenal looked like they had got themselves back in the title race by beating Manchester United last week, in what was essentially a cup final for them. But here they were out-thought and out-played by an Aston Villa side that were full value - and could have won by more but for the penalty miss. I said last week that Arsenal were back in the race but after that, it is very, very difficult for them to win the Premier League.

GOAL - Cristiano Ronaldo's century
It is a fantastic achievement to get 100 goals for Manchester United and to do it in such a short space of time, says it all. It was also fitting that it was a typical Ronaldo strike. I know a lot of people are blaming Thomas Sorensen, but I'm not having any of it. For a start he didn't see it until late and then he's got to deal with the pace and swerve only Ronaldo can put on a ball.

SAVE - Heurelho-Gomes v Jimmy Bullard
It seems strange to be saying this given that he chicked the first one on in but he did make a fantastic save from Jimmy Bullard's free-kick. But Gomez can do that, he can make sensational stops, the only problem is he can make some howling errors - and he handed Fulham that first goal. As good as the save was though, I do think that's it for him at Tottenham and Harry is just waiting for the transfer window to open so he can get his own man in.

PLAYER - Gabriel Agbonlahor
The best thing about this young lad is he is just getting better and better. I watched him play in the first ever game at The Emirates a few years back and just thought he was a whippet with bags of pace but not a lot else. But on Saturday he was superb. He played that lone role up front but did it brilliantly. He didn't just try and become another John Carew, staying central with his back to goal, he he drifted across the Arsenal back four and dropped off William Gallas and Mikael Silvestre, when you could see they were wanting someone to play right up against them. Agbonlahor's awareness of how that role can be so effective was there for all to see in his goal - he did well to keep the ball away from the defender before a smart finish.

GAFFER - Martin O'Neill
Let's not forget Aston Villa also have their bad days and are still one of those many, many sides in the pack chasing the top four, but this win should give them the belief their manager says they are lacking. Credit to O'Neill though, tactically he got it right and out-smarted one of the smartest of them all in Arsene Wenger. The five in midfield weren't just there to stifle Arsenal because Ashley Young and James Milner were quick to get forward and support Agbonlahor when they could. Villa went to play as well and did not just sit there and hit Arsenal on the counter-attack - and you have to give the manager credit for getting it spot-on.

TEAM - Aston Villa
All the headlines will tell you how poor Arsenal were, but they weren't that bad. Spurs were below-par at Fulham, Arsenal were just beaten by the better side. Villa defended superbly and were just quicker to everything, their pace and movement going forward just made life uncomfortable for Arsenal's defence. They are level with Arsenal on points now and they hadn't won at Arsenal for years, so that shows just how well they did on Saturday.

GRIPE - Bolton's disallowed goal
I've looked at this time and time again and I still don't know what Rob Styles saw. Kevin Nolan is allowed to stand where he wants and if anything, it should have been a penalty because first of all, Pepe Reina shoves him. Nolan would only have done something wrong had he stepped into the keeper, or moved to block him off, but he didn't - he just stood still. It was a brilliant ball in and that is what Bolton do, they put one near, one far and one on the keeper. And then you see two goals, by Kenwynne Jones and Christopher Samba in the Blackburn-Sunderland game, stand when the offences were far worse. Liverpool were worthy winners at The Reebok, but the score was 1-0 when Cahill's goal was disallowed...

Kammy will be back next week to answer your Premier League questions. To send one in CLICK HERE, or send them to skysportsclub@bskyb.com, with Chris Kamara in the subject field...

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