Spurs

Archie Gray scored his first ever goal as Spurs got a win away at Selhurst Park despite struggling for large parts of the game against Crystal Palace. Palace have two wins and three losses in their last five league games and sit ninth in the table after 17 games. Tottenham have just one win along with a draw and three losses in their last five in the league and sit 14th in the table with 22 points. Palace made four changes to the team that lost on penalties to Arsenal in the Carabao Cup, Walter Benitez, Chris Richards, Jaydee Canvot and Eddie Nketiah were replaced by Dean Henderson, Nathaniel Clyne, Will Hughes and Justin Devenny. Spurs made two changes from the team that lost at home against Liverpool, Cristian Romero and Xavi Simons who were both sent off in that game were replaced by Kevin Danso and Richarlison. The first real incident happened just five minutes in as Jean-Philippe Mateta played through the on-running Devenny who was tripped blatantly by Danso, the Spurs defender was booked and after a VAR review the yellow card was upheld. Palace again pressed forwards as Hughes and Devenny linked well, Devenny’s shot from just inside the box was blocked and fell to Mateta again, but it was stopped by Spurs keeper Gugliemo Vicario. Spurs put the ball into the net after 17 minutes with their first real chance of the game, Mohammad Kudus picks up a slack header and a couple of nice passes between him and Lucas Bergvall they then find Archie Gray whose cross found the head of Richarlison, however Bergvall was found to be offside by VAR and the goal didn’t stand. Palace would then go up the pitch and Adam Wharton would win back possession and played an exquisite pass to Mateta who took a decent shot at goal with the ball stuck under his feet but drifted wide. Another chance came for Oliver Glasner’s team as they won another free kick taken by Yeremy Pino, his cross deep to the back post was headed back across goal by Maxence Lacroix and met by Mateta who headed over from about five yards. As we passed the half hour mark the game was extremely one sided with Crystal Palace holding the majority of the possession, but Tottenham were defending very well. Palace again went close just a minute later as left wing-back Tyrick Mitchell’s cross was met by Devenny, but his header went straight at Vicario. Djed Spence plays a blind pass on the edge of his own box that goes straight to Wharton who is able to hit a curling left foot shot but again it was a fairly easy stop for the goalkeeper. The one-way traffic continued, this time it was Hughes who had a shot go over the bar after more good work down the Palace left from Devenny and Mitchell. Tottenham unbelievably took the lead as they managed to get a corner that was curled into the far post by Pedro Porro, it was knocked back across goal by both Randal Kolo Muani and Richarlison before the vital touch by Gray for his first senior goal to give the visitors the lead. As we hit half time Tottenham had grown into the game more but were undeservedly ahead with that Archie Gray header. Palace should have had a few goals by this point in the game, but they couldn’t find the definitive finishing touch. The early moments of the second half were dominated by Crystal Palace, mirroring long spells of the first half but again the final touch evaded them. Palace’s first shot of the second half came after 55 minutes a cross by Pino was headed by Clyne and his header found Devanny around eight yards from goal who had to hit it on the spin, but his shot flew over the bar. As we passed the hour mark, the trend of the game continued as Palace remained on the ball a lot, having just over 70% of the possession but still looked lost once they reached the Tottenham penalty area. Spurs were just clinging on desperately to their one goal lead. Yet again Crystal Palace go close from a header, a Wharton cross headed back across goal by Jefferson Lerma and Lacroix this time puts it wide as it was almost beyond belief at this point that Palace hadn’t scored. Again, Spurs are able to break up the pitch once and put the ball in the net, a long ball by Porro found Kudus, a one-two with Gray and Kudus plays a wicked outside-of-the-foot cross for Richarlison. However again VAR denies Spurs a goal and the deficit is back to just one. A Wharton corner was met six yards out by Marc Guehi, and he became the latest Palace player to miss the target from a close-range header. Spurs have another flurry up the pitch again a long ball towards Kudus whose lay-off finds Richarlison but his shot is straight at Palace keeper Henderson. A Spurs free kick taken by substitute Joao Palhinha was headed goalwards by another sub Radu Dragusin but it flew over the goal. Spurs again went close as another sub Wilson Odobert hit the post with a powerful shot after good work from Palhinha to win back the ball and get it into Odobert’s path again. Spurs had one last chance late into injury time as Odobert got the ball to substitute Brennan Johnson who cut it back for Rodrigo Bentancur but his powerful shot was saved well by Henderson. The game finished with a 1-0 win for Tottenham in a game they deserved to lose, Palace had the majority of possession and chances, but they couldn’t get enough of their attempts on target and the ones that did hit the target were easy to save. This result took Tottenham up to 11th place as they face another away game as Thomas Frank goes back to his old club Brentford