Crystal Palace warmed up for the FA Cup final with a 2-0 win over Europa League finalists Tottenham.
A brace from the in-form Eberechi Eze means Palace have completed a Premier League double over Spurs, inflicting a 20th league defeat on the north London outfit in the process.
With both teams having one eye on their respective cup finals, heavy squad rotation was expected. However, only Ange Postecoglou followed the blueprint as he made eight changes to the side that started in Norway.
One of those to keep his place was Dejan Kulusevski but he was forced after after 18 minutes and is now an injury doubt for the Europa League final.
A disjointed Spurs were very much second best throughout the first-half and it was no surprise that they fell behind when Daniel Munoz sprung the offside trap to square the ball for Eze who had a simple tap-in to score for a third Premier League game in succession.
Palace, in truth, were somewhat unfortunate to not be further ahead at half-time.
Munoz spurned two big chances, Jean-Philippe Mateta had a effort from close range saved by Antonin Kinsky whilst Ismaila Sarr and Maxence Lacroix had goals disallowed, the former by the tightest of offside calls.
Eze did double Palace’s lead early in the second half with a move that he started and finished.
Playing a brilliant pass with the outside of his right boot to Sarr, he carried on his run to get on the end of the cut back to side foot the ball into the back of the net for his second of the afternoon.
Spurs were able to hand minutes to captain Heung-min Son in a boost ahead of the Europa League final, though that was one of few positives as this result coupled up with West Ham’s win at Old Trafford sees them drop to 17th place in the Premier League table.
