Silva praises Leno and Mitrovic in Fulham's 2-1 defeat at Spurs

Fulham boss Marco Silva admitted Tottenham deserved the three points but singled out two of his players at either end of the pitch for particular praise.

Aleksander Mitrovic scored his sixth goal of the campaign and that, coupled with a string of world-class saved from former Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno, meant Fulham were still in with a chance of snatching a point until the very last here at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Silva admitted after his side’s 2-1 defeat: “It wasn’t our best performance. We didn’t get our standards. Our first half was not good enough.

“Most of the times on the ball we gave it away. We took so many wrong decisions and were not dynamic enough.

"The goals we conceded were too sloppy. In the second half I saw much more courage, even after the second goal at lest we tried until the end.

“We had a very good chance for Tom Cairney to equalise but I have to be honest Tottenham deserve the three points.”

Spurs appeared to be cruising to victory – 2-0 up with just minutes remaining, boss Antonio Conte was even afforded the luxury of taking off one of his goalscorers – Harry Kane – with the midweek Champions League game against Marseilles in mind.

But a number of acrobatic saves from Leno, and Mitrovic’s superb curling effort in the dying minutes, kept alive the hopes of the travelling whites fans until the final blast of referee Stuart Attwell’s whistle.

Silva said: “(Mitrovic) can score at any moment. We fought until the end even though we were not playing at the best level we matched them until the last minute of the game.

“Mitrovic is in a very good moment, his confidence you can see every time when he has the chance he takes it. He has the ability to do it.

“Leno is a top, top, top goalkeeper. I will probably repeat this every week the same. He kept us in the game and when he needs to make a statement in the game he is always there.

“Each week he will be more important. He is a top goalkeeper.

“We know his quality – he just needs to keep working and playing at his best level and we will see how good he is.”

Pictured top: Marco Silva (Picture: Charlie Stong)