Crystal Palace (Away) 27.10.2024

It was an untidy start all round, with both sides sloppy in possession and control and although Spurs won a couple of corners, the clearest chance was Munoz’s when Vicario tried to play out only yo play the ball straight to the Palace full-back, but struck Bissouma in the chest with his shot.  That was with nearly 17 minutes gone, such was the lack of quality in the match to this point.  Early in the game, a blatant block on Mikey Moore as he looked to run forward from halfway by Wharton and a knee in Maddison’s back from behind by Lacroix were let go, which contrasted with what went on later in the match.

A couple of stoppages that saw Lerma substituted after being injured, Kulusevski for a head injury and Porro when he received a kick on the foot from Mitchell, who went over the ball, all produced more interruptions to the flow of the game.  The press employed by the home team seemed to put Tottenham on the back foot and they were unable to find a way past it.  Well, that and every time it looked as though they might break the press they got fouled.

A 25th minute short corner for Palace saw Lacroix win the ball in the middle of the goalmouth, but he got under his header that went over the bar and just on the half hour, Udogie did well to win the ball off a Palace player, but had the ball taken off him and Sarr got a shot on target but Vicario was behind it.  However, a minute later, Mateta scored when Micky van de Ven got caught in possession as the ball that was played across to him by Romero did him no favours, with the ball being played across by Munoz for Eze to touch it on to where the Eagles striker hit a left-foot shot under Vicario having taken a touch off Porro’s intended block.

Mikey Moore and James Maddison linked well down the left, with a pass aimed for Solanke but Guehi got the ball out for a corner.  From that Van de Ven struck a post with a shot that Brennan Johnson steered towards goal and Palace looked to break but Dejan Kulusevski pushed Mitchell over to stop the progress forward.  From the free-kick, that took an age to take, Munoz headed it on and Guehi got his head to it, but it dropped into Guglielmo’s arms when he should have done better.  Spurs were slow on the ball and were giving the ball away too often and too cheaply, allowing the home side too much time on the ball, that lead to needless corners being conceded.  The home crowd really are a bunch of know-nothings, as they booed Kulusevski when he went down with a head injury and booed the Spurs players when Wharton did the same.  They make a lot of noise with their drums and their “organised” chanting, but they don’t seem to understand the game.

Mikey did well to get a cross into the area as the game entered added time, but it was headed out for Porro to latch onto it, but he couldn’t keep his shot down.  The same result came from an Eze volley on the edge of the penalty box after Vicario punched out a corner and there was still time (resulting from the stoppages for head injuries) for Maddison to shoot low that brought a very good diving save to his left from Henderson.  It was a good move down the left with Udogie playing it to Moore, who returned the ball as Destiny continued his run into the area and cut it back to Maddison on the left hand corner of the six-yard box, but the keeper got a good hand to the shot from close range to push it away.  

At the start of the second half, Henderson was alert to block Kulusevski’s effort at the near post after it was played in from Johnson, who was played into space by Solanke.  From Tottenham’s corner Palace looked like they had doubled their advantage when Eze was played through and his shot was half-saved by Vicario, with the ball trickling over the line, but a flag and a VAR review wiped it out for offside just inside the Spurs half.  The former QPR midfielder had another chance, but couldn’t get a decent connection on it and then Eze got the ball in the area, turning one way and the other before going down with the Palace players and fans all wanting a penalty, but it was decided that there wasn’t enough in it.

Johnson had been booked for a foul, but nothing more than that, which was soft compared to previous infringements by home players and when Dejan tackled Eze, who went down easily, the Palace midfielder was asking for a yellow card, but nothing resulted from his request or the foul.

Tottenham looked all at sea, with Palace finding space to get the ball around the box with Munoz getting plenty of possession on the right, with Sarr and Eze having further opportunities, with Vicario doing well to keep out the Sarr effort that took a flick off van de Ven and required the keeper to use his legs to keep the ball out.  It was also interesting that the referee took no action when Mitchell hit Kulusevski late after the ball had long gone.  His persistent fouling was worth a yellow card in itself.

When Micky brought down Ismaila Sarr, there were cries for a red card, but there was little in the challenge and he was going wide instead of straight at goal, so a free-kick and a yellow card was the result.  The noise from the home end decided in their wisdom that the referee wasn’t much good and let him know it.  It was back-heeled by Hughes to Eze, who powered a shot in but straight at Vicario, who couldn’t hold it and the follow-up shot was scuffed wide.  It all got a bit niggly with Munoz and Hughes trying to impose themselves and the Palace crowd showing their ignorance by wanting the game stopped when Munoz got caught on the chin, so it wasn’t a head injury.  Interestingly, when Munoz put an arm up to Udogie’s face, the crowd booed the Spurs man and the referee deemed it not worthy of a booking for the player already on one.

Pedro Porro played a superb disguised pass in behind the Palace defence for Richarlison, but his touch was too heavy and ended up being a goal-kick as he went into the box and another bending cross from the Spaniard ended up at the far post, where Richi hadn’t anticipated it and missed the ball completely.  Once more, when it looked like Pape might break away, he was crudely brought down by Hughes, who rightly got booked.

With seven minutes left, Wharton hit a shot that looked as though it was going in, but Vicario reached out a left hand to keep the ball out for a corner and when Guglielmo punched that out Wharton had another go, but his volley went a long way over.  Spurs had a bit of a go with the game into seven minutes of added time, but there was little quality in the attacks, without much threat on the Palace goal.  The closest we came was Timo Werner’s ball in that just missed Solanke and Richarlison, before Henderson grabbed it at the Brazilian striker’s feet.

I don’t know if it was the extra hour’s sleep due to the clocks going back last night, but this Tottenham performance was slow and uncharacteristically poor.  When a club hasn’t won a game in eight attempts since the start of the season, you feel that the way we play would mean that they would be put under pressure, but that didn’t happen.  Palace worked really hard, but the lack of cohesive movement and passing let Tottenham down badly, with Henderson only forced to make a few saves, while Vicario was the busier of the two keepers mainly due to the careless defending in front of him.  Too often Spurs players stood off the home players and while Eze can be a tricky customer, there was not enough pressure pout on him when he was in possession, allowing him to pull the strings for the Eagles.  We made a lot of their players look good and while you would have expected them to come out and show their home fans something against a London rival, Spurs failed to do the same on a ground where we have had good results over the last few years. 

It wasn’t as though their high press won the ball that often, it was more that Spurs presented the ball to Palace.  The errant passing that went on during Thursday’s game was carried over into this one and while there was over 60% of possession, it is always the same, it is not the amount of ball you have but what you do with it.  We’ve only got a few days before the City League Cup match and the same before we face Villa, so it is something that has to be resolved quickly.

Paddy Kingston

• James Maddison made his 200th Premier League appearance.
• Both teams took the knee before kick off.