TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR  1  (1)  CRYSTAL PALACE  0  (0)
Date : –  Saturday 6th May 2023 Kick off : –  15.00
Competition : –  Premier League Venue : –  Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Crowd : –  61,093
Referee : –  Darren England (Sheffield) Linesmen : – Mr. Dan Cook; Mr. Constantine Hatzidakis
Fourth official : – Robert Jones
VAR official : – Neil Swarbrick VAR Assistant : – Sian Massey-Ellis
Weather : –  Raining throughout; light then more persistent
Crystal Palace kicked off the first half attacking the Park Lane end
Playing time : –   90 + 8 minutes

 

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR CRYSTAL PALACE
GOAL-SCORERS
    Kane  45+0m 10s   None
CARDS
  Davies  (foul on Olise)  83   Schlupp (foul on Skipp)  55
  Lenglet  (foul on Zaha)  86   Ward (foul on Kane)  69
  Fraser (stopping Zaha ripping the ball out of his hands) 90+1    Ayew  (foul on Richarlison)  73
       Zaha (trying to rip ball out of Forster’s hands)  90+1
       Andersen (foul on Kane)  90+2
 

 

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR CRYSTAL PALACE
20.   Fraser FORSTER  21.   Sam JOHNSTONE
     
12.   Emerson ROYAL 2.   Joel WARD 
17.   Cristian ROMERO
6.   Marc GUEHI
34.   Clement LENGLET    (  15.   Eric DIER  88 16.   Joachim ANDERSEN 
33.   Ben DAVIES  3.   Tyrick MITCHELL
      
23.   Pedro PORRO  10.   Eberechi EZE
5.   Pierre-Emile HOJBJERG 28.   Chieck DOUCOURE
4.   Oliver SKIPP  15.   Jeffrey SCHLUPP    (  19.   Will HUGHES  74) 
7.   Heung-Min SON (  16.   Arnaut DANJUMA  89)     
7.   Michael OLISE
10.   Harry KANE  (c)   9.   Jordan AYEW    (  22.   Odsonne EDOUARD  84)
9.   RICHARLISON  (  21.   Dejan KULUSEVSKI  79)   11.   Wilfried ZAHA  (c) 
Substitutes Substitutes
40.   Brandon AUSTIN 13.   Vincente GUAITA
6.   Davinson SANCHEZ 44.   Jairo RIEDEWALD
29.   Pape Matar SARR 26.   Chris RICHARDS
38.   Yves BISSOUMA 17.   Nathaniel CLYNE
14.   Ivan PERISIC 8.   Albert Sambi LOKONGA
27.   Lucas MOURA 4.   Luka MILIVOJEVIC
14.   Jean-Phillipe MATETA

    = Assist        =  Goal scored       =  Own goal scored

Acting Manager : – Cristian Stellini Manager : –  Roy Hodgson
Kit Supplier : – Nike Kit Supplier : – Macron
Shirt Sponsor : – AIA Shirt Sponsor : – cinch
Shirt Sleeve Sponsor : – cinch Shirt Sleeve Sponsor : – Mukuru
Colours : –
Colours : –
Images of kits courtesy of the marvellous Colours of Football website

 

MATCH REPORT
On the day that King Charles III was crowned, our own King – Harry – took the headlines with his record breaking 209th goal in the Premier League to beat Crystal Palace 1-0 at the THS.

Ryan Mason rung the changes, with a Royal appointment at right back and leaving out Perisic and Kulusevski to start Davies and Richarlison, while there was a surprise appearance by Yves Bissouma on the bench.  Starting with a 4-4-2 formation, it was going to be interesting to see how the team adapted to a flat back four, although the system was pretty fluid during the match which started after the playing of “God Save The King”.  It was a little surprising that the linesmen didn’t have Union Jack flags for the day !

The first attempt at goal in the match came from Spurs when Kane glanced a header beyond the Palace back line and Richarlison’s low shot was kept out by Johnstone’s legs, but he looked offside and that was confirmed when the flag belatedly (as is the fashion these days) went up.  Palace came into the game winning a couple of corners, with Forster punching the first away and then fortunate as an Andersen far post header dropped in the six yard box for him to collect despite a number of red and blue shirts being around it.  When Spurs won a corner in the 16th minute, they went much closer as Porro played a pacy ball in and Romero met it with his forehead, only to see the ball rebound away off the crossbar.

With the two ball winners in midfield, Oliver Skipp looked like John McEnroe wearing a headband to cover the stitches in his head and Pierre Emile-Hojbjerg was regularly involved in picking the ball off Palace players, playing one to Kane, who returned it into his path as he made his run into the box, but swiping at it first-time, he shot wide of the goal from the right side.  A lot of Palace’s reliance was on set-pieces and one free-kick was blocked by a head in the Spurs wall, but they retrieved possession, playing it out to the right, where Olise cut into the box and hit a good shot with his left foot, but it went straight into Forster’s chest at the near post as the keeper got down low.

Tottenham’s turn to attack saw three corners won, which created nothing, but from the last one, Palace broke away with Zaha putting the ball across the face of goal, but it was cleared by the Tottenham defence.  Another Palace free-kick provided Andersen with half a chance when it dropped for him, but being a defender, his finish ended up in the crowd at the Park Lane end.  The board had just been raised for one minute’s time for stoppages to be added on when the ball dropped 25 yards from the Palace goal for Harry Kane, with Guehi at his back.  He had picked out Porro’s run on the right as he swept a pass put to him, where the Portuguese wing-back had acres of space giving him time to measure a cross to the far post where Harry rose above Ward to power a header into the top of the goal from a few yards out. 10 seconds into added time and Spurs had taken the lead, but as soon as the game was restarted, the half-time whistle blew and the teams trooped off with Tottenham the happier of the two.

The goal put Harry second above Rooney in the Premier League goal-scorer’s list and it also gave him a new record of scoring ten goals in a PL season, one more than Duncan Ferguson.  Most of all, it gave Spurs the lead for the first time in quite a few matches. 

So, what would the old man at the Palace – Roy Hodgson – do to turn things around ?  An initial free-kick was punched out by Forster and then Zaha tried an inventive clipped shot from the left corner of the box that drifted just wide of the far angle of post and bar and then he threaded a pass to the middle 20 yards out and Eze flicked it forward with the heel that was behind him, but under pressure, he dragged his shot well wide of the goal where the ball had come from.  Olise was coming onto the ball and might have been better placed to get a shot on target.

At this stage niggle started to creep into the game.  Schlupp went in on Skipp very late in what looked like a very out of control tackle, but only got a yellow card before Spurs had a Lenglet header from a Porro free-kick before Pedro tried an effort that bent off target.  Doucoure tried a shot from 18 yards out after a palace corner had been cleared, but Forster comfortably got down behind it at his near post and Johnstone had to be on his toes at the other end when Porro’s driven cross came off a defender and the Palace goalie had to turn it over the bar as it headed for goal.  This brought a corner and then two more, with the third seeing the ball cleared and Sonny having to track back to win a header to a ball that might have put Palace through.

The Palace players were making rash decisions and Ward’s dive into a tackle on Kane, when he didn’t need to brought him a yellow card and Spurs almost scored from Porro’s free-kick that was driven across the face of goal, just a little too high for anyone to get a touch on.  Another yellow card followed for the visitors when Richarlison looked to run away when the ball was cleared, but Ayew made a cynical challenge to prevent him getting any further.  Spurs managed to slice through the Palace defence with a straight ball from Romero which sent Son through on the keeper, who just managed to get a hand to the shot as our striker went around him.

Olise had fouled Ben Davies and had a Brave running dialogue with linesman Constantine Hatzidakis, the man who elbowed Andrew Robertson.  The man should have got a round of applause from the Spurs fans where he was running the line, but Ben Davies then got booked for a foul on Olise that was no worse than the one he had suffered, although a foul a couple of minutes earlier probably didn’t help his cause.  Richarlison had come off with Dejan Kulusevski replacing him, just before a moment of danger for Tottenham came from a free-kick (what else would it have been ?), when the ball was played to Andersen at the far post, which was their favoured set-piece routine headed back into the space in front of goal and Harry Kane was well-positioned to slam the ball away.  Obviously, Palace lack an equivalent to Gianni Vio !

With Palace looking for an equaliser, their impatience was clear.  Lenglet beat Zaha to the ball just outside our penalty area and ran the ball towards the corner flag, only for Zaha to push him to ground.  Furious that a free-kick was given, Zaha and then Olise started to give Hatzidakis backchat, which he responded to (not with an elbow, but a stern look and a few curt words).  They were not best pleased when Clement slipped as he tried to turn to get to Zaha and ended up throwing a block at the Palace striker’s feet to bring him down.  A booking was all it was worth, but then that was the same punishment for a kick in the head !  It didn’t help Lenglet, who had to be replaced as the arm he threw out had been hyper-extended and Dier came on for him, while Danjuma replaced Son, who had to go off at the nearest point, while most other teams are allowed to be substituted at the halfway line.  

Before the resulting came in, there was some confrontations at the edge of the Spurs box, with Romero facing up to Ward and then when the free-kick was taken, it was Romero who won the header to concede a corner.  From that, Andersen won it, but Dier headed it away from danger.  Forster got the ball when Kane had been fouled, but Zaha tried to wrestle it from him with the referee handing out yellow cards to both of them.  It was odd, as he had failed to do so earlier when Royal and Ayew had an argument over the ball, but that was probably because he would have had to give each of them a yellow card, meaning Ayew was off.  So, he bottled it and did nothing.

There was a wonderful couple of minutes at the end of the game, where Tottenham kept the ball in the corner at the Crystal Palace end.  Hojbjerg and Kane did what Spurs usually are not very good at and ran down time playing the ball off the hapless Ward a number of times to win throw-ins and free-kicks, as Palace tried in vain to win the ball.  Andersen was also livid when he got a yellow card for a desperate lunge at Harry as time ticked away to a Spurs victory.  Not content with his yellow Andersen continued his tirade at the officials after the whistle and was fortunate not to get another.

To be honest, it wasn’t a great game and Palace looked like they were going to have a go, but having secured a safe place in the Premier League didn’t really trouble Forster that much.  Spurs could have had a couple more goals, but in the end one was enough and a clean sheet was a welcome bonus.  All the team worked hard and Cristian Romero looked at home in a back four, making some timely interceptions and using his aggression in a considered way, rather than getting caught up in unnecessary nonsense.  Emerson Royal’s return was also a bonus, with him putting in a good shift and doing a decent job on Zaha.  He particularly pleased the fans when he won the ball from the Palace winger and then lifted it back over his opponent’s head to keep possession.

One of the best moments in the match came in the 16th minute, when Ben Davies crossed the ball only for it to be blocked by Palace defender Ward’s “Crown Jewels”, who was laid out in pain.  It could only have been better if it had been Emerson Royal who had been the Spurs player to cross it on this Coronation Day. 

The noisy fans on their way back to South London chanted “We’re Crystal Palace, We don’t win away” and that they were shitter than we are, but there is a lot of noise around the Selhurst Park club and that is all it is. 

Wyart Lane

 

MATCH NOTES
  • The National anthem was played before the match to mark the Coronation of King Charles III earlier in the day.
  • Harry Kane scored his 100th home goal in the Premier League and in doing so became the first player in Premier League history to score 100 goals at home and away.
  • The goal set another new record for Harry Kane with 10 headed goals in a Premier League season.
  • And it took Harry into clear second position in the all-time Premier League goal-scorer’s list with 209; one more than Wayne Rooney.
  • The Spurs goal was the 100th at home in competitive matches against Crystal Palace.
  • The crowd of 61,093 was the biggest for a meeting of the two sides at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

 

OTHER RESULTS
AFC Bournemouth 1 Chelsea 3
Mancashter City 2 Leeds United 1
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 Aston Villa 0
Liverpool 1 Brentford 0
West Ham United London 1 Mancashter United 0
Newcash United 0 Woolwich Wanderers 2
Brighton & Hove Albion 1 Everton 5
Fulham 5 Leicester City 3
Nottingham Forest 4 South Coast Big Club 3


Premier League Table 2022-23

Played Won Drawn Lost For Against Points Goal difference
1 Mancashter City 34 26 4 4 89 31 82 +58
2 Woolwich Wanderers 35 25 6 4 83 39 81 +44
3 Newcash United 34 18 11 5 61 29 65 +32
4 Mancashter United 34 19 6 9 49 41 63 +8
5 Liverpool 35 18 8 9 67 42 62 +15
6 Tottenham Hotspur 35 17 6 12 64 57 57 +7
7 Brighton & Hove Albion 33 16 7 10 63 45
55 +18
8 Aston Villa 35 16 6 13 46 43 54 +3
9 Brentford 35 12 14 9 52 45 50 +7
10 Fulham 35 14 6 15 50 49 48 +1
11 Chelsea 34 11 9 14 34 39 42 -5
12 Crystal Palace 35 10 10 15 35 46 40 -11
13 Wolverhampton Wanderers 35 11 7 17 30 50 40 -20
14 AFC Bournemouth 35 11 6 18 37 67 39 -30
15 West Ham United London 35 10 7 18 38 50 37 -12
16 Nottingham Forest 35 8 9
18 34 65 33 -31
17 Everton 35 7 11 17 32 53 32 -21
18 Leicester City 35 8 6 21 49 64 30 -15
19 Leeds United 35 7 9 19 44 69 30 -25
20 South Coast Big Club 35 6 6 23 31 64 24 -33