Tottenham Hotspur forced Fulham to suffer a crushing loss in London. Rodrigo Muniz's double in form helped Fulham to a thrilling 3-0 victory at Craven Cottage on Saturday, severely hurting the chances of the top four Premier League contenders.
If Tottenham had won, they would have moved up to fourth position in the rankings, but they were left unhappy and powerless to voice their grievances after losing badly after the break.
Just seconds after Sasa Lukic had doubled Fulham's lead shortly after the half, Muniz broke the stalemate in the 42nd minute and completed the victory for Tottenham an hour later with another goal.
Fulham had earlier eliminated Tottenham from the League Cup, thus this was a stunning domestic double against them. It was also their first league victory against the North Londoners in ten meetings.
With 53 points from 28 games, Tottenham is in fifth place; with 38 points from 29 games, Fulham is in 12th place.
Tottenham's 4-0 victory against Aston Villa last week gave them a boost in the Champions League qualification chase, but since Antonio Conte took over, their commitment has vanished.
"We couldn't get a handle on the game in the second half," Conte said. The level of intensity decreased."
"Our third and final play wasn't very excellent. However, the game was unsatisfactory all around. We have been proud of our intensity and tempo for the entire year, but in the second half, it wasn't there."
With no goals until the 42nd minute, the first half was full of shocks.
Astute Conserving
Compared to their opponents, Fulham got off to a more enthusiastic start thanks to Andreas Pereira.
In Fulham's opening assault, they came dangerously close to scoring when their shot deflected off Christian Romero. Romero's block eluded Spurs goalie Guilherme Vicario once more shortly after when he attempted to clear a low cross.
Vicario made a couple of nice stops against Lukic and Villian before Tottenham could really start to pose any threat.
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Son Heung-Min squandered a chance, Brennan Johnson sent a shot directly at Bernd Leno following a deft ball, and Rado Dragusin's attempt to put himself in a wonderful position for Spurs was dragged out.
James Maddison also drew close to the crowd, but Fulham took the lead when Anthony Robinson's brilliant low cross exposed Tottenham's whole defence, and Muniz's deft touch allowed him to shoot past Vicario and into the net.
In the second half, Fulham doubled their lead in just four minutes thanks to a ball from Aleksandar Mitrovic to Timothy Castagne, whose low cross was met by Lukic.
After Tottenham faltered, the 22-year-old Brazilian Muniz scored his second goal and Tottenham's eighth goal in seven games off of Kelvin Bassey's post shot an hour later, leaving them on the ground.
Just one minute later, Joao Palhinha's attempt was flagged offside by Raul Jimenez, sparing Postecoglou's team more humiliation.
Spurs' scoring run of 38 league games came to an unfortunate end when Timo Werner and Richardson converted late opportunities.
Fulham secured their ninth home victory of the campaign, making it yet another happy day by the banks of the River Thames.