At the other end of the table, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Bolton Wanderers earned morale-boosting victories over Wigan Athletic and Stoke City respectively.
Goals from Gareth Bale, Aaron Lennon and Jermain Defoe gave Tottenham their seventh win in eight league matches to move them alongside Chelsea on 22 points, although Spurs have a game in hand on their London rivals.
It was a nail-biting afternoon for Tottenham, however, as Younes Kaboul's own goal after 57 minutes signalled a Fulham siege which looked certain to bring an equaliser.
Tottenham keeper Brad Friedel made several reaction saves and Luka Modric cleared one shot off the line before Defoe scored on the break in stoppage time.
Goals for David Edwards and Stephen Ward after the break sealed a 3-1 victory for Wolves after Wigan had equalised just before halftime through Ben Watson.
Wolves, who began the season well before a slump in form, had taken the lead through Jamie O'Hara.
The home side moved up to 13th in the table with 11 points. Wigan are bottom with five points after eight consecutive Premier League defeats and Bolton failed to move out of the bottom three despite a 5-0 thrashing of Stoke.
Chris Eagles and Ivan Klasnic scored twice each to earn Bolton their first home league points of the season and avenge their 5-0 loss to Stoke in this year's FA Cup semifinals.
