Goalmouth action was at a premium at Craven Cottage early on in this London derby, with Spurs looking a little jaded after their midweek European exploits.
It took them 20 minutes to truly threaten the Fulham box, but when they did they looked dangerous, with Mathys Tel turning Timothy Castagne inside out in the area, only for his cross to flash agonisingly across the six-yard box without a Spurs shirt throwing themselves at it.
The Fulham full back was soon impacting the game at the other end, but after Ben Davies’ miscued clearance dropped perfectly for him, his left-footed effort was tamely hit straight at Guglielmo Vicario.
It was the Cottagers who closed the half out with more momentum, yet it was a running theme throughout the opening 45 that neither side could find many openings in front of goal.
It was a much similar pattern at the start of the second half, only this time a fortuitous chance did fall the way of Emile Smith-Rowe, but he sliced his effort high and wide.
Ange Postcoglou went to his bench at HT to bring on Lucas Bergvall and Heung-min Son, and the former of that duo worked Spurs an early opening after the break, floating a cross onto the head of Dominc Solanke, who could only guide his delivery wide.
Such was the evident lack of quality, the game’s first gilt-edged opportunity arrived in the 69th minute.
Bernd Leno produced a fine stop to deny Tel from the edge of the area, and when James Maddison was first to the rebound to cushion the ball perfectly into the path of Dominic Solanke, he could only volley over the bar from a matter of yards.
The game became end-to-end in the closing stages as both sides traded blows looking for a late winner.
Returning Fulham star Willian - on his first start since returning to the club - curled an effort inches wide 15 minutes from time.
The hosts didn’t have to wait too much longer to find the elusive opening goal though, eventually nosing ahead when a scrappy move ended with Andreas Pereira teeing up Rodrigo Muniz to roll the ball into the bottom corner.
The game was placed beyond any reasonable doubt two minutes from time, in sensational fashion too, as just seconds after being introduced, former Spurs man Ryan Sessegnon shrugged Ben Davies off the ball and curled home a sumptuous right-footed effort, ending Spurs’ two-match winning away league run in the process.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Andreas Pereira (Fulham)