Many thanks to Declan Mulcahy for his report:-

Sunday 27 October 2024, 2:00pm
Premier League
Crystal Palace (1) 1 Tottenham Hotspur (0) 0

Scorer:-
Mateta 31

Crystal Palace (3-4-2-1): Oliver Glasner
1 D Henderson; 27 T Chalobah, 5 M Lacroix, 6 M Guehi (c); 12 D Munoz 41, 20 A Wharton (18 D Kamada 88), 8 J Lerma (19 W. Hughes 22), 3 T Mitchell; 10 E Eze, 7 I Sarr (9 E Nketiah 67); 14 J-P Mateta

Subs not used: 30 M Turner, 2 J Ward, 17 N Clyne, 58 C Kporha, 64 A Agbinone, 15 J Schlupp

Booked: Booked: Mateta (32 foul on Moore), Munoz (41 foul on Udogie), Lacroix (61 kicked ball away), Hughes (77 foul on P Sarr)

Tottenham Hotspur (4-3-3):
1 G Vicario; 23 Pedro Porro, 17 C Romero (c), 37 M van de Ven, 13 D Udogie; 21 D. Kulusevski (29 P Sarr 62), 8 Y Bissouma (30 R Bentancur 87), 10 J Maddison (9 Richarlison 62); 22 B Johnson, 19 D Solanke, 47 M Moore (16 T Werner 62)

Subs not used: 20 F Forster, 33 B Davies, 6 R Dragușin, 14 A Gray, 15 L Bergvall

Booked: Kulusevski (37), Johnson (52 foul on Hughes), van de Ven (65 foul on I Sarr), Richarlison (85 foul on Chalobah), Matt Wells (dissent)

Selhurst Park, Attendance: 25,180

Referee:- Darren Bond
Assistants:- Lee Betts, Steve Meredith
Fourth official:- Tim Robinson
VAR:- Chris Kavanagh
Assistant VAR:- Richard West

First league win for Palace against mediocre Spurs

Thanks to Eugene Gasper for the picture

Spurs came into this game having won three of their last four league matches. Crystal Palace had equalled their worst ever start to a Premier League season losing five out of eight games drawing the other three. Based on form Spurs were expected to take the points. However Spurs are unpredictable when it comes to league games. Thus it came to pass that Palace gained their first win of the season which was deserved in a very poor match.

Ange Postecoglou made one change from the team which beat West Ham United last weekend. Mikey Moore made his full Premier League debut replacing the injured Heung-min Son based on his fine midweek performance against AZ Alkmaar. The only two players who started all three matches were Udogie and Maddison while Moore started the last two, so tiredness should not have been a factor in today's performance.

Oliver Glasner the Crystal Palace manager has reputedly been given four games including this one to turn the situation around if he is to save his job. Last week they had suffered a disappointing 1-0 defeat away to Nottingham Forest the goal coming after the Palace goalkeeper Henderson allowed the ball to squirm under him. Glasner made three changes today with Wharton (returning from injury), Ismaila Sarr and Mateta replacing Kamada, Hughes and Nketiah. Nketiah was signed from Arsenal during the close season but has failed to score so far for Crystal Palace.

The first half was a stop-start affair punctuated by minor injuries. Maddison was the first to go down after a robust tackle by Lecroix. Lerma did sustain a match ending hamstring injury after 19 minutes and had to be replaced by Hughes. Kulusevski then needed attention after being caught in the face by Guehi. Porro was the next to go to ground after a knee-to-knee collision with Mitchell.

We had to wait twenty-nine minutes for the first shot on target when Ismaila Sarr's shot was easily saved by Vicario.

A minute later disaster struck. Spurs tried to play the ball out from the back but lost possession on their left side. Munoz crossed from his right side, the ball was flicked on by Eze and Mateta coming in from the left had lots of space to score with a shot. In the build-up van de Ven had an opportunity to clear the ball but couldn't do so.

Prior to this goal Crystal Palace had played 781 minutes of Premier League football this season and had only led for 37 minutes in the game against Everton which they ultimately lost.

A couple of minutes later Spurs had their best opportunity to equalise. Moore made progress down the left before passing to Maddison. He set up Solanke but the latter's shot was blocked by Guehi. Following a corner van de Ven's effort hit Johnson and then a post.

The difference between the two situations was that Spurs couldn't score because the box was full of Palace defenders whereas just earlier Mateta was left with the time and space to score. This has been a familiar and repeated situation for Spurs under Postecoglou.

Vicario was called into action to save a header. Wharton went down after being caught by an accidental elbow by Moore. Kulusevski was booked perhaps for dissent.

Kulusevski crossed the ball towards Solanke but Henderson intercepted his effort. Porro tried one of his volleys from the edge of the box and not for the first time it was too high.

Six minutes were added on due to the number of fallen players. During this time Kulusevski was brought down by Mitchell and kicked out at him which was very unwise given that he had already been booked. Eze volleyed over after a corner. Moore had another run down the left passing to Udogie who set up Maddison but Henderson saved the latter's shot.

Despite the relatively poor quality of the first half neither team made any changes at the break.

The second half began with Porro creating a chance for Kulusevski but Henderson saved his shot. Wharton then sent Eze clear with a long pass. Eze was unopposed and put the ball in the net but he was offside and his effort was disallowed.

Eze then played a nice ball into the Spurs box but there wasn't a Palace player to take advantage of it. A couple of minutes later Eze went down in the Spurs box and Palace appealed for a penalty. There had been contact with van de Ven but it wasn't sufficient to justify a penalty.

Eze then set up Ismaila Sarr. His shot was on target. Vicario dived in the wrong direction but made a good save with his legs. Soon after Vicario palmed the ball away and Eze should have scored with a volley but his effort was wide.

Kulusevski fouled Hughes and was treading a fine line given his earlier booking.

Just after the hour mark Postecoglou made three changes with Sarr, Werner and Richarlison replacing Kulusevski, Moore and Maddison. The changes probably saved Kulusevski from receiving a second yellow card for persistent fouling. Otherwise they had very little effect.

Ismaila Sarr got ahead of the Spurs defenders. He was brought down by van de Ven who received a yellow card rather than a red for denying a goalscoring opportunity as Sarr was moving towards the corner rather than the goal.

Richarlison received the ball in the Palace box but his first touch was poor. Another potential chance ended when the ball bounced poorly for him.

Wharton shot from outside the box and Vicario made a diving save. Then Vicario punched the ball out Wharton picked it up and shot over.

Richarlison was booked for a foul on Chalobah and Matt Wells also received a yellow card for protesting about Richarlison's card.

A further seven minutes were added on at the end of the second half but produced nothing of note.

This was Spurs worst league performance of the season. A double-helping of the second half against Brighton.

One year ago today Friday 27 October 2023 Spurs also played Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park and won 2-1. At that point Spurs led the Premier League table with 26 points from 10 games. Postecoglou had made a dream start.

Since then their form in Premier League in 37 league games, almost an entire season, has been both consistent and inconsistent. They are consistent in that over those games Spurs have averaged 1.4 points per game which would result in 55 points for a season and would likely result in finishing 8th or 9th in the Premier League table. The results are inconsistent in that very good performances are immediately followed by very bad performances. Some examples are in March 2024 Spurs beat Aston Villa 4-0 away. The next outing saw them lose 3-0 Fulham. Next month a 3-1 win over Nottingham Forest followed by a 4-0 tonking against Newcastle. This season an excellent 3-0 win at Old Trafford was followed by a collapse at Brighton. Last weekend produced a 4-1 against West Ham and this weekend an abject defeat at Crystal Palace.

While Postecoglou has presided over some good results he seems unable to produce consistent results in the league. His squad has been strengthened during the close season and yet the points per game during the first quarter of this season is no better than that of the last three-quarters of last season (1.4 per match). The away form is consistently poor.

The owners of the club aspire to qualify for the Champions League more often than not. Based on the last 37 league games it has to be questioned as to whether or not Postecoglou can achieve this objective.

Spurs league form is inconsistent and needs to improve significantly if the team is to challenge for a Champions League place. They are doing better in the Europa League because the standard of the teams is lower than in the Premier League. There is a possibility that they could win the Europa League and qualify for the Champions League that way. However if the indifferent league form continues and they finish in midtable in the Premier League it doesn't solve the problem.

Spurs face three challenging matches over the next ten days; Manchester City home in the League Cup, Aston Villa home in the Premier League and Galatasary away (likely to be the hardest game in the group stage of the Europa League). Even if they don't win all of these games they need to produce credible performances with some consistency. If they don't the pressure on Postecoglou will increase significantly.

Today was an unusual day in the Premier League. There were four matches in the Premier League all hosted by London teams. Chelsea were at home to Newcastle United, Spurs as detailed here were away to Crystal Palace, West Ham United hosted Manchester United while the top of the table clash saw Liverpool visit Arsenal. Five of the seven London teams were in action. Sadly Spurs were the only London team to lose.

. Spurs record in recent London Derby League matches

Follow @spursodyssey

. Squad numbers,appearances,bookings & goalscorers
. Read the preview for this game.
. All the Spurs Stats you could hope for here! THFC6061 Sports Stats