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Crystal Palace came into the game at the back of a poor performance at Stamford Bridge while Spurs are not yet in their best of form. Mauricio Pochettino needed a win to keep in touch with the top four places whereas Roy Hodgson wanted a win to stay away from the relegation zone. It was a London Derby which has its significance for two different reasons.
The home side was up for the challenge from the first minute of the game and looked to take the game to Spurs with Andros Townsend getting a chance to put Palace ahead. Dele Alli got a chance to score, but his header went wide of the post.
In the last ten minutes of the first half, the game looked stretched, and Tottenham created few decent chances but could not break the deadlock. Palace was solid at the back and managed their defensive shape well.
The first big chance of the second half fell to James Tomkins from a corner, but he wasted his header. However, the deadlock broke when Juan Foyth headed home from a close range to give Spurs the lead.
After the goal, Palace made a late surge for the equaliser, but they missed some glorious chances to score much to the dismay of their manager. It was the same old story as the Eagles gave their all but came away empty-handed after the game. Here are the 3 observations from the match.
#3 A narrow win again for Spurs
Tottenham Hotspur has been far from their best this season. They are still managing to win games against lesser oppositions but being made to work hard for it. Both on and off-field distractions have somewhat affected Spurs' game as well.
After leading by three goals in the last game against Wolves, Pochettino's side conceded two in the second half and almost surrendered a point to Nuno's side. Again today, they struggled to shrug the Palace side and scored rather scrappily from a corner. This kind of performance won't do any harm against teams like Wolves or Palace, but against better opponents, it would be hard to get points as they already found out against Manchester City and Liverpool.
#2 Lack of goals for Palace
Crystal Palace is struggling to find the back of the net in most of their games this season. Defensively, Roy Hodgson's side has been solid and managed to keep teams out for a more significant period of the game, but without goals upfront, it's always tricky for a team to maintain that defensive shape for 90 minutes.
Against Everton, Palace had good chances to score but missed all of them and was made to pay later in the match. Today against Tottenham, they were without their talisman Wilfried Zaha, but the other players didn't let his absence felt. After Foyth gave Spurs the lead, Palace got several chances to score but lacked that killer instinct in the final third.
Hodgson would be disappointed with the number of chances they missed today. It's been the case so far this campaign, and if that continues, it would be challenging to save relegation.
#1 Battle for the top four is on
Tottenham Hotspur came into the game knowing that a win would take them level in points temporarily with Chelsea and Liverpool in second place. Mauricio Pochettino's side has now won six of their last seven games in the Premier League and keeping themselves in touch with the top four places.
With Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United playing tomorrow, Spurs could not afford to drop any points as the battle at the top is very close and it could go down to the very end to decide the Champions League qualification.
Despite the win, Pochettino must be worried about his side's performances this season. Spurs are winning games by a close margin and had to dig deep till the final whistle to get all three points from their games. Harry Kane has still not reached the level he did in the previous campaigns, and the midfield hasn't created that many chances either.
