4 Things We Learned From Crystal Palace 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur

4 Things We Learned From Crystal Palace 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur
14:25, 25 Feb 2018

Harry Kane scored his 150th goal of his club career as Tottenham Hotspur secured a last-gasp win against Crystal Palace.

The England international broke away from Damien Delaney to head home his 35th goal of the season just when it looked like the Eagles’ resolute performance had paid off.

With all the flatness that a mid-day Sunday kick-off promised, the visitors at Selhurst Park were flat for large periods despite enjoying 77% possession.

Roy Hodgson had 10 injuries to cope with and unsurprisingly, his men mustered fewer than half the Lilywhites’ attempts.

For the most part, Spurs were sloppy and gave the ball away too many times. Two decent penalty shouts were turned down in the first half, once when Ben Davies collided with Wayne Hennessey, and later when Timothy Fosu-Mensah brought down Kane, but the England striker was deemed offside.

Kane’s awful second half miss was completely out of character and it looked as though it was going to epitomise a disappointing day. Instead, Mauricio Pochettino’s side moved back into the top four, at least temporarily.

1. Wanyama-Dembele axis was crucial, but not conducive to creativity

Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld were both ruled out, with a knock to the ankle and a minor hamstring injury respectively. That left Davinson Sanchez to be paired with Eric Dier at centre-back, so Mousa Dembele linked up with Victor Wanyama to start a first league game together since August. The latter was clearly under instruction to protect the back four, which he did well, though Dembele gave away quite a few unnecessary free-kicks in the middle. Going forward, the threat was always going to have to come from out wide.

2. Palace used their extra height to their advantage – and did a job on Eriksen

At both ends of the pitch, Palace seemed to win most of the aerial battles, not allowing many balls to be whipped into Kane or Alli. Christian Benteke was relatively ineffective, but his team-mates generally played to their physical strengths.

Hodgson will have identified Christian Eriksen as the danger man – as we’ve seen previously this season, stop him, and it’s difficult for Tottenham’s whole attacking engine to operate. Whenever he was on the ball, the Palace midfield closed him down quickly and he was given very little space.

3. Aurier disappointed again – apart from in one big moment

Three foul throws in one game from a professional, Premier League, footballer. The Ivorian’s ill-discipline has been seen several times since he arrived in the summer and while it didn’t cost his team on this occasion, equally, he didn’t look at the races. The full-back must work on his final ball against defence-minded opponents. On a more positive note, he did make one superb challenge on Alexander Sorloth when the 22-year-old was through on goal.

Aurier might have won it with seven minutes to go, but fumbled the ball after Davies had placed a perfect pass across the goalmouth.

4. Dele Alli’s reputation in the box has started to precede him

The Palace fans rejoiced as his penalty appeals were waved away. Realistically, referees are going to look upon him sceptically for the foreseeable future, and he has a lot to do to now put that reputation to bed. The second time he went down, in particular, he could quite easily have stayed on his feet – if he’s not careful, he could end up with a retrospective ban.

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