Crystal Palace (Home) 11.05.2025

From the off, the reshuffled Tottenham team looked disjointed, as they have at other times this season due to injuries, but the eight changes Ange Postecoglou made from the match in Norway was a bridge too far.  Not many players came out of the game with much credit, as those who had looked good previously suffered from the multiple changes to the team with a lack of understanding with passing, players running towards the ball when it was played long and vice versa.  It left Palace a lot of space an time to play in and they could easily have been four goals ahead at half-time.

Palace kicked off, but it was Spurs who looked sharp winning the ball and winning a corner half a minute into the game, which was headed away at the near post.  However, a taste of things to come arrived in the third minute, when Munoz got space on their right wing and a deep cross was met by Mitchell beyond the far post.  He did well to get his shot on target, but it lacked conviction and Kinsky managed to get down at the foot of his near post to save. 

Dejan Kulusevski was selected as the man in the middle of a three man attack, flanked by Mathys Tel and Wilson Odobert.  A forward pass by Archie Gray aimed in front of Odobert was too long and from the back Place played forward with Mateta getting the ball on halfway, before squaring it to Eze, who in turn spread the ball right to Munoz.  His low ball across the box picked out Ismaila Sarr in the six-yard box who had the simple task of tapping the ball into an empty net.  SO, seven minutes in and Tottenham were a goal behind.  But wait !  There’s always VAR to have a look and spoil the party. SO nine minutes after kick off the semi-automated offside technology ruled the goal out as Mateta had his shoulder in the Spurs half, while the rest of his body was in his own, but that was enough to get the goal chalked off.

Kinsky had to be sharp out to claim a through pass for Sarr into the box getting to grab the ball and Spurs broke to press high and Pape Matar Sarr did well to win the ball 25 yards form goal.  It fell for Dejan, who burst into the box past Hughes, who made contact with him, but Kulu got the shot away and was blocked out for a corner.  That bounced around the box until the visitors got it away.  A left wing break brought a cross by Palace into the Tottenham area and Munoz volleyed it at goal from 12 yards and although Toni was down behind it, it was spinning and came off his hands and spun off them towards his feet.  Fortunately, the Czech keeper did well to recover and grab it at the feet of a Palace striker.

Fifteen minutes into the match, Kulusevski went down under a strong challenge from Guehi and it left him laid out, needing treatment on what looked like his knee.  As he waited on the side-line, he was tentatively putting weight on the knee and when he re-entered play, he went down to ground again and had to be subbed, with Mikey Moore replacing him.  Then Tel went down when Lacroix bettered the back of his head with his arm while going for a header, but Mathys got up and continued on.  Mathys then went down again when Hughes caught him with a challenge from behind on the back of his ankle.  The referee was lenient in allowing these things to go on, but he saw things differently a little later.

25 minutes had gone and Palace won a corner on their left.  Played deep to the far post it was headed back across goal and Bentancur headed away, but not far enough to let Sarr head the ball forward into the six-yard box, where Mateta met it on the volley, but Kinsky had closed him down having read the situation to block it with his body for another corner.  As ever, Mateta was pushing and jostling, trying to get around the Spurs keeper, but Toni got to it to punch away back to the corner taker Eze, whose cross was over-hit.  Three minutes later, Spence lost the ball on halfway, Mateta shrugged off Bentancur and sent Munoz away hitting the bar with a rising shot form just outside the box.  just before the half hour, some short passing put Gray under pressure to stretch for a ball away from him and the ball was shifted right for Munoz, in lots of space, but he chose to slide the ball across to his left for Mateta, which pushed him wide and he was off-side anyway.

Lerma then nodded a weak header at goal from a free-kick, which dropped gently to Kinsky and then Sarr hit a rising shot that Davies got a deflection on to take it over the bar  then Toni pushed out a header from Richards.  Mateta was slipped in on the right of the box and as the striker tried to turn it past Kinsky as he came out, Kevin Danso got a touch on it to take it wide.  The French forward then won a corner when the ball bobbled around the Spurs box, but it appeared that Davies cleared it against him, but it came to nothing with the cross being too strong and going off for a goal-kick.  

After a poor pass by Sarr that didn’t reach Odobert, the ball found its way to Eze, whose shot took a flick off Danso’s knee and luckily spun wide with Kinsky going the other way.  It seemed to have delayed the inevitable opening goal for just a minute, as the right wing corner was flicked on to the far post and bundled in by Lacroix, with the referee blowing for an infringement straight away.  When it was lowed down, it his Guehi on his arm on the way in.  Guehi could also have been offside and Mateta could have been fouling Kinsky, so you cold take your pick.  It did only keep the score level for about another 60 seconds, as Mateta turned a ball just inside the Spurs half down the right for Munoz and this time, his square pass was dispatched into the Tottenham net by an unmarked Eze just outside the six-yard box.  VAR came down on Palace’s side this time as Munoz looked offside, with Ben Davies 30 yards away deemed to have been playing him on.

Tel and Moore did well to work the ball between them in a tight situation, with the Frenchman stopped in his tracks by Lerma’s two hands into his chin.  A free-kick saw Porro whip the ball in and it grazed the top of the net on its way over the bar.  

The second half began with Tottenham kicking off to a half-empty stadium, with fans seeking respite from the hot sun in the concourses.  Yves Bissouma, who had replaced Bentancur at the break, was penalised for foot up, as Hughes ducked to head the ball and was booked for dissent when he argued the decision, but Spurs were looking to attack, with Odobert and then Porro having shots blocked on the edge of the box.  The latter broke for Eze, who brought the ball away and played a pass out to Sarr on the right behind Spence with the outside of his right foot.  Getting into the box, Sarr’s cross was blocked by Djed, but the ball went back to the winger, whose second chance saw him feed it into the path of Eze who side-footed it low just to Kinsky’s right from around the penalty spot to make it 2-0.  It took twenty seconds to turn defence into a goal and the speed of the transition caught Spurs with too many players in advanced positions and a goal just before the 45 minute mark and one shortly after it had put Spurs in a place they looked unlikely to recover from. 

On the 50 minute mark, Mateta took the ball away from Bissouma, who was on a booking, so couldn’t make a foul and then got past Danso, lining up a shot at goal that Kinsky did well to beat out to his left.  It was cleared for a throw and it came in long, with Danso heading on, forcing Toni to push the ball wide as it looked as though it was going to be on target. Spurs did get down the right with Wilson beating Mitchell and his ball across the six yard box was just headed out of Mikey Moore’s reach at the far post by Munoz.  Then straight from the restart, Porro bombed a cross in from the right to find Pape’s run at the far post, but the ball had a bit too much weight on it and Sarr couldn’t quite get his head around it to get his header on target.  

Halfway through the half, Chilwell drove in a cross that Sarr didn’t have mush time to react to and headed just over from the six-yard line.  Consistent fouling by Hughes was unpunished, while Bentancur had been booked for one in the first half, which makes you wonder how refs see the game sometimes. 

Another header went over at the far post after a corner had been knocked back to the far stick, while Gray got space on the right to put in two crosses, one that brought a brief VAR check for handball against Guehi that was dismissed and another came off the same defender, which Henderson had to take high up at his near post.  Nketiah made two needless fouls within a minute and got away with them.

Tel nicked the ball away from a defender and played a pass in to Son inside the box, but marshalled by Guehi, the shot was blocked and with Son on the floor, he managed to get up, but ended up fouling the Palace captain.  When Nketiah, the former Gooner got played straight through from a ball won deep in the palace half, it showed that he is more adept at kicking players than the ball when he tried to beat Toni low to his left, but put it too close to the keeper, who got down behind it with ease.

If anything, this match highlighted a lot of problems Spurs have had all season.  Against a Palace side that Glasner chose to keep as close to his first choice as possible, Spurs struggled to find a passing rhythm.  Much of this is down to the lack of movement off the ball, with throw-ins being a prime example.  How many times do we see a throw played back to the taker, who is under pressure because nobody is occupying the nearest opponents ?  Why is there no intent to drag the other team’s players away to create some space for a Spurs player to find a little space ?  Playing out from the back works.  Many other clubs do it successfully because there is always a pass on with players working to find the angle to receive it.  With players static, when the ball is turned over, the opposition are on the move, so we get caught on the turn.

Giving the ball away cheaply and having to chase after it saw Spurs wilt in the heat.  It was lack of accuracy in our passing that handed so much possession to the opposition, while causing ourselves problems and a 0-2 defeat was less than Palace deserved.

Davies, Tel and Kinsky had decent games, with most of the rest of the side struggling against a settled Palace side, but we can expect a bit more fof the same when Tottenham visit Aston Villa on Friday, with the Midlanders annoyed by the fixture change unlikely to take it easy on Spurs, with a place in the Champions League on the line for them.

• A defeat was a record 20th in a Premier League season for Tottenham.