Storm Babet continues to affect racing in Britain and Ireland, with this afternoon’s meeting at Yarmouth and tomorrow’s card at the Curragh the latest casualties.
There are also now inspections planned at Fontwell ahead of tomorrow’s fixture and at Clonmel for Thursday.
Yarmouth were forced to abandon their seven-race Flat card after an early-morning inspection, as “considerable rainfall overnight” left the track waterlogged.
Officials at the Curragh have cancelled Wednesday’s meeting following 21mm of rain last night, with the course currently unfit for racing and facing an unfavourable weather forecast.
Clerk of the course Brendan Sheridan said: “The forecast is for a further 5mm of rain today with the possibility of more rain moving in tomorrow, so there was no prospect of the situation improving here prior to racing.
“We’ve had a total of 77mm in the last week and the ground has been heavy since entries closed last Thursday.”
Fontwell have called a precautionary inspection for tomorrow morning at 7.30am.
The going is currently described as soft, good to soft in places, but “further significant rain” is expected this evening and early on Wednesday.
At Clonmel, the ground is heavy but currently fit for action ahead of racing on Thursday.
However, clerk of the course Lorcan Wyer reported: “Having spoken with Met Eireann, there is the possibility of a further 5-10mm of rain and some spot flooding tomorrow afternoon which will be on top of the 54mm of rain the track has had in the last week.
“With that additional rain forecast for tomorrow, we felt it was prudent to let people know as early as possible that we will need to have a precautionary inspection at 7.30am on Thursday morning.”
Last Saturday’s scheduled meetings at Stratford and Market Rasen were lost to the weather, along with Wednesday’s Worcester card and four upcoming fixtures at Southwell.
Emma Finucane is trying to ignore her new status as sprint world champion as she sets her sights on achieving Olympic glory in Paris next summer.
The 20-year-old Welshwoman shocked herself when she took the women’s individual sprint title in Glasgow in August, beating Germany’s favoured Lea Friedrich in the final.
Finucane donned the rainbow jersey for the first time in competition at the UCI Track Champions League opening round in Mallorca this weekend, but while the distinctive striped jersey means she can no longer keep herself inconspicuous, she does not want it to change her approach.
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“People will look at me now,” Finucane told the PA news agency. “Last year I was kind of the underdog and I just came through so now I am wearing the stripes. I hope that doesn’t really change anything.
“I’m just trying to ignore it and just race my bike, but there is some external pressure. I’m not just Emma at the back of the field anymore.”
The rainbow jersey can do different things for different riders. While many take it as a confidence boost, for others the stripes have worn heavily. Finucane said she had spoken to several Great Britain team-mates about how to deal with it.
“I don’t want to look at it (as giving me a psychological edge) because if I lose, then what?” she said. “And I will get beaten, and that’s fine. I just need to take it as it comes.
“Half of it is the mental battle of putting it on and people looking at you and having that pressure, but I’m trying to embrace it and enjoy it because you don’t know if it will happen again.
“Beth Shriever is a really good friend of mine and she’s been the BMX world and Olympic champion. She said she didn’t have the best year in the rainbow jersey because she put too much pressure on herself and she overthought it.
“I’ve spoken to Evie (Richards, 2021 mountain bike world champion) and Katie Archibald (a five-time world champion on the track) and I’m lucky we have so many inspiring women in the Great Britain team. It’s great I can learn from them but ultimately I will only learn from myself and how I deal with it.”
And Finucane believes the Champions League – the made-for-TV track cycling series which is in its third season – is the ideal place to do much of that learning, providing some top-level competition without the stresses and pressures that come elsewhere.
“The next event I’ll do in the rainbows is the Euros (in January) which is when everything is serious,” she said. “I’m not saying this isn’t serious, but it’s a nice place to be free to fail. You can try new things.”
Saturday’s racing in Palma saw Finucane finish second in the sprint, beaten by Germany’s Alessa-Catriona Propster, before failing to make the keirin final through some tired legs. But it was just the sort of experience she was looking for when it came to dealing with her new status.
Finucane will wear the stripes into an Olympic year but despite her status is taking nothing, not even squad selection, for granted.
“Nothing is guaranteed,” she said. “I’d love to go and I’m really pushing myself but I need to take each race as it comes. If I just think about Paris and everything else goes wrong I’ll not be going.
“But it’s in the back of my mind because since I was 10 years old I’ve wanted to ride the Olympics.
“As the GB sprint team we’ll not just be going there to ride but we’re looking for medals and I fully believe we have the potential to win. It’s super exciting but also super scary.”
The Texas Rangers are through to their first World Series since 2011 with an 11-4 victory over the Houston Astros in game seven of the American League Championship Series.
The Rangers will come up against either the Philadelphia Phillies or the Arizona Diamondbacks, who face off for a place in the final in their deciding game seven on Tuesday.
Corey Seager’s early home run helped Texas grab the initiative straight away as they raced into a commanding lead.
Rangers led 4-2 in the third innings and they hammered in four more runs in the top of the fourth to secure a comfortable triumph as Houston were denied a third-successive World Series appearance.
Texas are the oldest club in Major League Baseball to not have a World Series to their name but will have the opportunity to get their first by playing four of the seven games at their home stadium in Arlington.
Former England winger Christian Wade announced his retirement from rugby union at the age of 27 on this day in 2018 as he looked to launch an American football career.
Wade, the fourth highest tryscorer in English club rugby on 82, was granted early release from his Wasps contract after nine years at the club to join NFL team the Buffalo Bills.
In doing so he halved his salary from the £250,000 a year he was earning in the Gallagher Premiership. The move never took off on the field either as he failed to make the Bills’ roster.
Slough-born Wade, who won his only England cap in 2013 against Argentina, described the decision to leave rugby as the hardest in his life.
He said: “After playing nine years of professional sport for Wasps, I’ve decided to leave for personal reasons.
“I would like to thank Wasps chairman Derek Richardson and Dai (Young, director of rugby) for their support, consideration and understanding in what is the most difficult decision of my life.
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“Rugby has privileged and honoured me with so many wonderful memories that will stay with me for the rest of my life.”
Wasps were third in the Gallagher Premiership and bottom of their Heineken Champions Cup group when Wade, who as well as winning one England cap also represented the 2013 British and Irish Lions on their tour of Australia, announced he was leaving.
“It’s very disappointing to lose a player of Wadey’s quality at this stage of the season,” Young said.
“The club held numerous discussions with him to try and convince him to keep pushing forward with Wasps but in the end it was clear this is the path he wished to go down. The club nevertheless wants to wish him all the best with his future career path.”
Using the NFL’s international player pathway program to facilitate the switch, Wade made waves by scoring a 65-yard touchdown as a running back in pre-season, but a regular season game eluded him.
The experiment lasted three years and in September 2022 he returned to rugby after agreeing a deal to join French side Racing 92.
Adolis Garcia homered twice and drove in five runs to set an MLB post-season record for RBIs in a series, and the Texas Rangers rolled to an 11-4 victory over the rival Houston Astros in Monday's Game 7 of the American League Championship Series to secure their first World Series appearance since 2011.
Garcia went 4 for 5 to cap a sensational ALCS in which he amassed 15 RBIs, the most by any player in a play-off series in MLB history. The Cuban slugger homered in each of the final four games and was an obvious choice for series MVP.
Corey Seager and Nathaniel Lowe also homered and rookie Evan Carter had a two-run double for Texas, which won Games 6 and 7 in Houston to improve to 8-0 on the road in these playoffs, tying an MLB record for consecutive away wins to begin a single post-season set by the 1996 New York Yankees.
Rangers skipper Bruce Bochy made history as well by becoming the first manager to win a League Championship Series with three different teams. The 68-year-old previously guided the San Francisco Giants to World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014 and led the San Diego Padres to the 1998 Fall Classic.
He'll now try to end the Rangers' 61-year drought without a World Series title, the longest of the six current MLB franchises that have never won one. Texas lost to Bochy's Giants in the 2010 World Series and to the St. Louis Cardinals the following year in their lone other previous appearance.
The defending World Series champion Astros were bidding to become the first team to win three consecutive league pennants since the Yankees did so in four straight seasons from 1998-2001.
They fell behind early, however, as Texas scored three times off Cristian Javier in the first inning.
Seager started the scoring with a one-out homer and Carter singled and stole second before coming home on Garcia's base hit for a quick 2-0 lead. Garcia then stole second and came around on a single by Mitch Garver.
Javier was pulled after recording just one out and allowing three runs on four hits. The right-hander entered Game 7 with a 1.69 ERA while winning both of his two previous starts in this post-season.
The Astros got a run back in the bottom of the first when Jose Altuve doubled off Max Scherzer and later scored on Jose Abreu's single, but Garcia's first homer of the night restored Texas' three-run advantage in the third.
Alex Bregman got Houston back within two with a solo homer off Scherzer in the bottom of the third, but the Rangers scored four times off J.P. France in the fourth to break the game open.
After loading the bases with one out on two singles and a walk, Carter doubled to right to bring in two runs and Garcia drove in two more with a single that pushed the lead to 8-2.
Scherzer permitted two runs in 2 2/3 innings before being removed in favour of Jordan Montgomery, who tossed 2 1/3 scoreless innings to earn his second win of the ALCS.
Lowe's two-run homer in the sixth stretched Texas' lead to 10-2. The Astros got a run back on Yordan Alvarez's RBI single in the seventh before Garcia went deep again in the eighth for the Rangers' final run.
Jake Allen made 36 saves and the Montreal Canadiens scored twice in the third period to earn a 3-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Monday.
Brendan Gallagher recorded the tie-breaking goal and Tanner Pearson scored on the power play in the third period to help the Canadiens to a second straight win and third in four games. Both also had an assist.
Gallagher gave Montreal a 2-1 lead by poking a loose puck past Buffalo goaltender Eric Comrie 3:31 into the third period, and Pearson made it a two-goal advantage with 3:07 remaining with his third tally in four games.
Justin Barron put the Canadiens ahead 2:56 into the contest, but the Sabres drew even on Jeff Skinner's power-play goal with 7:13 elapsed in the first period.
Allen was impenetrable from there, however, making 17 saves in the second period and 13 more in the third.
Comrie finished with 24 saves for Buffalo, which finished 2-2-0 on a four-game home-stand.
Two first-half touchdowns from rookie Jordan Addison set the Minnesota Vikings on the way to a 22-17 win over the San Francisco 49ers.
Christian McCaffrey, an injury doubt ahead of the game, matched him with two scores of his own but it was not enough as the 49ers slipped to a second successive defeat.
Kirk Cousins found Addison either side of McCaffrey’s opening score, the second from 60 yards on the brink of half-time.
Field goals from Greg Joseph stretched the Vikings’ lead to 18-7 early in the third quarter.
And Joseph struck again from 54 yards after McCaffrey had claimed his second touchdown on a 35-yard pass from Brock Purdy.
Jake Moody landed a field goal early in the fourth quarter to cut the gap, but Purdy was intercepted twice to stall any late revival.
After starting the season with five straight wins, the 49ers fell to 5-2 to leave last year’s Super Bowl rivals the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles as the only teams with a 6-1 record.
Erik ten Hag believes Sir Bobby Charlton will always remain an inspiration to Manchester United as they prepare for their first home game since the World Cup-winner died on Saturday.
Tributes to Charlton, who was 86, will take place before Tuesday’s Champions League fixture against Copenhagen, in the form of a minute’s silence, a wreath being placed on Charlton’s seat in the directors’ box and players and club staff wearing black armbands.
Charlton will also be remembered in the official programme for both the Copenhagen match and Sunday’s derby against Manchester City. There will be a minute’s applause prior to the City match as well as expressions of remembrance via flags and banners in the stadium.
Fans have already been flocking to Old Trafford to leave flowers, scarves and messages around the statue of Charlton, Denis Law and George Best – the ‘United Trinity’ – which is located outside the ground.
And when asked if Charlton would be an inspiration for his side not only on Tuesday but beyond, Ten Hag pointed to the statue.
“He is in front of Old Trafford,” Ten Hag said. “With Denis Law and George Best. He is always with us. They are always a huge inspiration for us, every day, and in every game.”
Ten Hag cited Charlton as an inspiration for his players in Saturday’s 2-1 win away to Sheffield United, secured by Diogo Dalot’s winner, but a match at Old Trafford will be an opportunity for the entire club to pay tribute on and off the pitch.
Ten Hag wants to mark the occasion with a victory, something United badly need in the Champions League after opening their Group A campaign with defeats against Bayern Munich and Galatasaray, while they have stuttered in the Premier League too.
“First we want to win as a tribute to Sir Bobby Charlton, but also you want always to do that in a certain way and that is what we are aiming for,” Ten Hag added. “It is not always possible in football, sometimes you don’t play that well but you have to find a way to win.
“I was happy on Saturday that we could show tribute with a win but also with the way we scored that second goal.”
Although they ground out the victory, United were again far from their best in Saturday’s win over the Blades, with social media full of grumbling from fans amid a pedestrian start to the campaign.
But Ten Hag said he continues to feel the firm backing of the supporters inside Old Trafford, and expects a special atmosphere on Tuesday night.
“It’s always special every night at Old Trafford, the fans are always so behind us,” the Dutchman said.
“I remember the last game, the home game against Brentford, even when the game is not going in our direction they stayed behind us in difficult moments and moments of adversity around Manchester United the fans are still with us and we are with the fans, we are fighting together.
“Definitely tomorrow after the passing away of Sir Bobby Charlton, their hero, their legend, their giant, I’m sure there will be an even more emotional evening tomorrow.”
Merrill Kelly and four relievers shut down the Philadelphia Phillies' powerful lineup as the Arizona Diamondbacks forced a deciding Game 7 of the National League Championship Series with Monday's 5-1 win.
With the Diamondbacks facing elimination at a hostile Citizens Bank Park, Kelly rose to the occasion by striking out eight over five innings and holding the potent Phillies to one run on three hits. The veteran right-hander ended his stellar Game 6 performance by retiring Philadelphia sluggers Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner and Bryce Harper in order, with two of the outs via strikeout.
Ryan Thompson, Andrew Saalfrank, Kevin Ginkel and Paul Sewald limited the Phillies to three singles the rest of the way to send the series to Tuesday's winner-take-all game in Philadelphia, where the defending NL champion Phillies outscored Arizona by a 15-3 margin in winning the first two matchups.
The underdog Diamondbacks, the NL's sixth and final playoff seed, will send rookie Brandon Pfaadt to the mound opposite Ranger Suarez in a rematch of Game 3 starters. Arizona won that contest, 2-1, with Pfaadt throwing 5 2/3 scoreless innings.
Tommy Pham and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit back-to-back solo homers in the second inning to back Kelly's strong outing, while Ketel Marte had two hits and two RBIs.
Pham and Gurriel's consecutive blasts of Aaron Nola gave Arizona a 2-0 lead, and the Diamondbacks tacked on another run in the second when Alek Thomas followed with a walk and scored on Evan Longoria's double.
The Phillies got a run back in their half of the second when J.T. Realmuto doubled and scored on Brandon Marsh's single, but provided few offensive threats the rest of the way to lose for the first time in seven home games this post-season.
Philadelphia has homered three times in each of its three wins in this series, but has just one combined in the three losses.
Nola didn't make it out of the fifth inning, as Marte ended his night with a one-out RBI triple that extended Arizona's advantage to 4-1. The right-hander, who went 3-0 with a 0.96 ERA over his first three starts of this year's playoffs, was tagged for four runs in 4 1/3 innings.
Marte also drove in the Diamondbacks' final run with a seventh-innng single that brought in Geraldo Perdomo, who reached on a single and stole second.
The Milwaukee Bucks and star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo have agreed to a three-year, $186million extension, multiple media outlets reported Monday, keeping him under contract through the 2027-28 season.
The final year of the deal, when the seven-time All-Star is scheduled to make $66.8million, reportedly carries a player option.
Antetokounmpo, who had previously said that he planned on waiting until next offseason to sign an extension, hinted at the deal earlier Monday with a post on social media that included a picture of him holding the Larry O’Brien Trophy after the 2021 Finals. The caption read: “MILWAUKEEEEEEEEE!! Let’s get it!!!! #BucksInSix #Extended.”
Antetokounmpo’s max extension – along with the offseason acquisition of Damian Lillard – should quiet any rumours of the two-time MVP’s desire to leave Milwaukee.
Antetokounmpo made comments earlier this offseason that were generally supportive of the team’s direction but left open the possibility of future discontent.
“But at the end of the day, I want to be a Milwaukee Buck for the rest of my career, as long as we are winning. It’s as simple as that,” Antetokounmpo said on media day earlier this month. He later added that the Bucks were “definitely” committed to winning another championship.
Antetokounmpo also said during media day that he did not plan to sign a contract extension until next offseason, when he could have secured a larger deal.
“I said that it did not make sense to sign the contract right now because money’s not important – a lot of money is important. So I’m going to sign it next year,” Antetokounmpo said with a laugh. “But, no, at the end of the day, again, it doesn’t make sense. It does not make sense for me to sign it right now. I’ve got to always look at what’s best for me and my family, for my situation.”
Bobby Marks, ESPN front office insider and former assistant GM with the Brooklyn Nets, explained on social media that Antetokounmpo may make more in the long run by signing this extension.
Antetokounmpo, 28, set a career high last season by scoring 31.1 points per game. The Bucks finished first in the East with a 58-24 record but were eliminated by the eighth-seeded Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs, beginning a crucial offseason for a team just two years removed from an NBA title.
Milwaukee fired coach Mike Budenholzer and hired Adrian Griffin as his replacement. The team was also able to sign Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez to long-term contracts before making the blockbuster trade that brought in Lillard and ended Jrue Holiday’s tenure with the Bucks.
Antetokounmpo has averaged 22.6 points, 9.6 rebounds and 4.7 assists in 719 career games since the Bucks drafted him 15th overall in 2013.
Lillard will make his Bucks debut Thursday when Milwaukee kicks off their 2023-24 season by hosting reigning MVP Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers.
Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou credited his side’s 2-0 win over Fulham to their “outstanding” pressing after they returned to the top of the Premier League.
Goals from Son Heung-min and James Maddison confirmed the three points for the hosts at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Postecoglou also praised the contribution of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, who started in place of the suspended Yves Bissouma.
“I thought our pressing was outstanding the whole game and maybe in the first half we could have got one or two more to put the game to bed,” Postecoglou said.
“I thought Pierre was good and he’s been good in every game he’s played for us and he’s been put in some difficult situations and handled them well, he’s very experienced.
“I thought in the first half in particular we stayed calm on the ball and had some good tempo. Like I said I thought our pressing was outstanding all game and I thought he was a big part of that.
“He made interceptions for both goals and yeah it was important to have him in there, his experience coming in because Bissouma has been very important for us and in such a crucial role but I thought he was excellent.”
Spurs took their foot off the gas after their second goal, which invited pressure from Fulham, who had their chances to score late on.
And the former Australia manager was “disappointed” with his side’s second-half efforts.
He added: “I’m really disappointed with the second half, we were nowhere near the levels we have been all year and we have got to make sure we stay disciplined in our approach because the keeper made a couple of great saves to keep the clean sheet and within the context we should have had a much better control of the game.
“I’m not trying to make a point, it’s just what I saw. I thought we were really wasteful with the ball in the second half. We took some liberties with taking extra touches.
“I’ve been around long enough to know if you try to take liberties, you’ll get dragged down pretty quickly.
“I’m not going to let the fact that we’ve won the game disguise the opportunity there for us to improve.
“In the second half, with the ball we weren’t anywhere near the levels we’ve already shown this year and there was no real reason for it. It wasn’t as if the opposition did anything different. It was more self-inflicted.
“My role in that was to give feedback to the players. That’s what they want. They want to get better, they want to improve, I’ve got some stuff there to show them.”
Centre-back Calvin Bassey gave the ball away in the 54th minute and Tottenham punished the mistake through Maddison, doubling his side’s lead.
And Marco Silva admitted he was disappointed with the manner in which Fulham conceded the second goal.
He said: “We were punished by the mistakes that we made.
“What disappointed me was the second goal. At half-time we spoke and we conceded a similar goal in the second half. We were punished again with the same type of goal.”
The reigning NFC champions may have just gotten even better.
The Philadelphia Eagles agreed to a trade Monday, acquiring two-time All-Pro safety Kevin Byard from the Tennessee Titans for safety Terrell Edmunds.
The Eagles are also sending a 2024 fifth- and a sixth-round round draft pick to the Titans in the deal.
Byard, who was selected to the AP All-Pro team after the 2017 and 2021 seasons, joins a top-10 Eagles defense that allows 290.3 yards per game.
Born in Philadelphia, Byard has 27 career interceptions in 120 games since being drafted in the third round by the Titans in 2016.
Reports of the trade surfaced during coach Nick Sirianni’s press conference, but he was unwilling to comment on the deal yet.
“I obviously want to get with everybody and talk before I say anything here,” Sirianni said.
Philadelphia is tied with the Kansas City Chiefs for the best record in the league at 6-1 after the Eagles’ 31-17 win over the Miami Dolphins on Sunday night.
Despite another fast start to the season, the Eagles felt they needed help in their secondary after the offseason departure of C.J. Gardner-Johnson in free agency.
Edmunds was a late first-round pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2018 and has five career interceptions. He joined Eagles on a one-year deal last offseason after the Steelers opted not to re-sign him.
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers wants his team to show they can take on the best in the world when they host Atletico Madrid on Wednesday.
The Hoops are looking for their first points of the Champions League campaign after going down against Feyenoord with nine men and losing to a last-gasp goal against Lazio after being denied the lead for a second time by a marginal offside decision.
Rodgers said: “We are playing one of the top clubs in the world and one of the best teams.
“We want to be able to take on the best teams in the world. We don’t have to be the best in the world but we certainly want to be able to take them on.”
Celtic warmed up with a dominant display in Sunday’s 4-1 win over Hearts.
“The players will go into it with great confidence,” Rodgers said.
“It will be an amazing atmosphere, we will try to start with energy and quality and devise a plan.
“The players have been unfortunate they haven’t picked up something. In the two games the performance level has been good, considering we had nine men against Feyenoord and the last game was hugely frustrating.
“But a great chance to play against a really good team and see if we can get our first points on the board.”
In-form midfielder Matt O’Riley will go into the game with a positive mindset after hitting his sixth goal of the season in style at Tynecastle.
The 22-year-old said: “If we play well and take our chances, and we believe we can do it, then anything is possible.
“We have seen that before in previous Champions League games in the past, I think performance is definitely there, it’s just a matter of being ruthless in both boxes to be honest.”
Goals from key duo Son Heung-min and James Maddison sent Tottenham back to the Premier League summit with a professional 2-0 win over Fulham.
Spurs had claimed top spot before the international break, but watched rivals Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool all leapfrog them across the weekend to raise the stakes of Monday’s London derby.
Fulham proved no match for Ange Postecoglou’s resurgent team and after Son grabbed his seventh goal of an impressive season in the 36th minute, he turned provider after half-time with an assist for partner in crime Maddison.
It was the latest example of the pair combining and a further nod to the present with Son’s once-famed partnership with Harry Kane, now of Bayern Munich, fast becoming a distant memory.
Next up for Postecoglou’s pace-setters is a trip to Crystal Palace on Friday where they could extend their lead at the top to five points with another win.
This was Spurs’ first home match since the Israel-Hamas conflict started and a moment’s silence occurred before kick-off for the innocent civilians killed, during which several Israeli flags were held up by supporters in different areas of the stadium.
Tottenham were without the suspended Yves Bissouma, which meant Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg earned his second start of the season.
Hojbjerg’s other start was the Carabao Cup shoot-out defeat to Fulham in August, but the hosts quickly set about correcting the only blot on Postecoglou’s near-perfect copybook in N17.
Visiting goalkeeper Bernd Leno was alert in the second minute to deny Son after a trademark Maddison through ball before Micky van de Ven hooked over from a free-kick soon after.
While Spurs’ ascent to first had seen them score 18 times in eight matches, they had also tightened up defensively and summer recruit Guglielmo Vicario demonstrated his class with a crucial stop in the 11th minute.
A corner from Andreas Pereira picked out Joao Palhinha, but his towering header was brilliantly tipped away by Vicario’s left glove.
One-time Tottenham loanee Carlos Vinicius sent a header wide not long after before Postecoglou’s men started to turn the screw.
Richarlison curled wide from 20 yards following a lightning-quick counter-attack, but the breakthrough did arrive in the 36th minute through Son’s seventh goal of the season.
Van de Ven was first to the loose ball after a poor Calvin Bassey pass and touched into Richarlison, who recycled into Son’s path and Spurs’ number seven turned away from Tim Ream before he produced a sumptuous finish into the top corner.
It was a deserved opener and it could have been 2-0 moments later with Bassey first heading away with Son ready to pounce before the Tottenham captain back-heeled to Destiny Udogie, but his shot was blocked.
There was still time for another opening when Cristian Romero played in Dejan Kulusevski, although the Swedish attacker tried to tee up Richarlison when the goal was at his mercy and Fulham survived.
Fulham boss Marco Silva made a double substitution at the break with Raul Jimenez and Alex Iwobi introduced, but the second for Spurs arrived in the 54th minute.
It was a carbon copy of the opener with Bassey’s pass out from the back intercepted by the excellent Hojbjerg and Son played through to Maddison, who coolly angled beyond Leno for his third goal of the term.
With the result almost already assured, Udogie and Pape Sarr did limp off in a concern for Postecoglou before Maddison almost made it 3-0.
Maddison led the press brilliantly and forced another error from Bassey by winning back possession, but Ream came across to block his effort.
And another strong stop by Vicario from Jimenez late on secured a fourth clean sheet this season for the early leaders.
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