Glory, glory Tottenham Hotspur blares over the tannoy. Well, the points are theirs today. But there wasn’t much about glory about that tired display. Will they care, though? Nope. Not a bit. This was always likely to be awkward. Tottenham looked leggy and emotionally spent after the win over Real Madrid and Crystal Palace did their best to frustrate them. The visitors even had the better chances while the game was goalless, but in the end they paid for their lack of ruthlessness when Son Heung-Min scored a lovely winning goal. All of which means Tottenham go level with Manchester United on 23 points - and below them on goal difference - and Palace stay bottom, five points off 17th place. That’s all from me for now. You can follow Manchester City v Arsenal next.
Full-time: Tottenham 1-0 Crystal Palace
It’s all over!
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90 min+3: Townsend cuts inside, on to his left foot, but his 20-yard shot is blocked. Tottenham appear to have done enough.
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90 min+1: Ben Davies replaces Danny Rose. Tottenham have used up their three subs.
90 min: There will be three added minutes.
89 min: There’s still an anxious air inside Wembley. Especially when another loose spell from Tottenham allows Townsend to dribble dangerously down the right. He steps round Dier and fires a low ball into the six-yard box from the byline. But Sanchez clears. What Palace would give for a striker!
87 min: Eriksen saunters through the middle, options left and right. He chooses Sissoko on the right. The midfielder’s cross is deflected behind. Sanchez heads wide from Eriksen’s cross.
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86 min: Gazzaniga, who’s had a good game, is alert enough to collect a long pass before Loftus-Cheek can nip in. Palace aren’t out of this yet.
83 min: Son shoots away down the left again, but this time Sakho holds him up, stands firm and settles for conceding a corner. Son lacked belief and pace there.
82 min: Son should kill Palace off after breaking through on goal. He sends Speroni one way, but after doing the hard part he strokes his shot into the near side-netting!
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80 min: From Cabaye’s corner, Dann loops a header over.
76 min: After a couple of Palace corners, Gazzaniga does well to punch clear under heavy pressure. Palace make a change. Bakary Sako is on for Joel Ward. Tottenham also make a change, Fernando Llorente on for Harry Kane.
73 min: Zaha hares back to stop a Son-led counterattack. You can tell how much Palace’s survival means to him. He wins possession and instigates a Palace attack, but it ends with Cabaye shooting wide from 25 yards.
70 min: A warning for Spurs. From the irrepressible Zaha, of course. He wriggles down the left and briefly looks like he’s going to score a repeat of his goal against West Ham. But he seems to get caught in two minds, perhaps after spotting Loftus-Cheek emerging in space on the right. In the end he rolls a curious looking thing out for a goal-kick. It was neither a pass nor a shot. It just ... was.
68 min: Palace haven’t mustered a response since the goal. Instead Tottenham are looking for a killer second. An Eriksen corner’s easily cleared, but it’s not long before Tottenham have another after strong pressing from Rose.
65 min: “Lads, we’re Tottenham” – Mauricio Pochettino.
GOAL! Tottenham 1-0 Crystal Palace (Son, 64 min)
It hasn’t been coming, but it has arrived. For once, Crystal Palace were unable to clear their lines and this is the result. The ball reached Kane in the area from the right. He shuffled it on to Rose, who cut inside before seeing his goalbound shot blocked. That was the moment Palace had to get it away. Instead Cabaye’s clearance only reached Son on the edge of the area. He took a moment to calibrate his sights before bending a super left-footed shot into the right corner to bust the growing Tottenham tension!
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62 min: Son skitters through the middle and finds Rose, whose cross slithers across the face of goal and beyond the sliding Aurier at the far post.
61 min: “Lads, it’s Tottenham” – Roy Hodgson.
60 min: Cabaye’s corner is headed on by Dann to the far post, where Milivoejevic thuds a header goalwards, only for Gazzaniga to make a stunning reaction save! Tottenham, living oh so dangerously, scramble the ball clear, at which point Kevin Friend stops play after spotting Son down in the area.
59 min: Palace’s belief is rising. A devilish cross from the left flashes across the face of goal. Then Townsend’s deflected shot has to be headed behind by Aurier.
57 min: Ward brilliantly heads Eriksen’s free-kick away. The ball comes to Aurier, who proceeds to roll a five-yard pass to Townsend in a manner that suggests he should be playing for West Ham. Tottenham are wide open here. Townsend sprays a pass through to Zaha and he rounds Gazzaniga, who’s come charging out of his area in an attempt to reach the ball first. The goal’s wide open, but now it’s Zaha’s turn to lose his composure as he pulls his shot two or three yards wide of the far post!
56 min: Schlupp struggles to clear and, in a panic, brings down Aurier. He’s booked.
55 min: Milivojevic hoists a high ball into the Tottenham area. Who’s there? Sakho! But his touch is loose and Aurier shovels it behind. Gazzaniga claims Cabaye’s corner.
53 min: Tottenham’s wait to threaten from a corner goes on.
51 min: Rose fizzes a low cross into the area. Milivojevic turns it over his own bar. Eriksen’s corner is headed away.
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49 min: Tottenham have a little trouble clearing the resulting corner, but they breathe a sigh of relief when Zaha hammers over from 18 yards.
48 min: A dreadful pass inside from Aurier is cut out by Townsend, who spies an opportunity to charge forward and test a backtracking Tottenham defence. He swerves to the left and drives a low shot towards the far corner, but Gazzaniga excels again, pushing the ball wide!
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46 min: Tottenham get the second half underway. Mousa Dembele has replaced Harry Winks. Tottenham want to make a fast start here. Aurier’s cross is headed behind by Fosu-Mensah.
Half-time: Tottenham 0-0 Crystal Palace
That was very dull. Mauricio Pochettino won’t be happy. Roy Hodgson will be happy.
45 min+2: Townsend is booked for tugging back Sissoko.
45 min+1: A free-kick to Palace on the left. Cabaye stands over it. But his delivery is too deep. An easy catch for Gazzaniga.
45 min: Winks sends an effort harmlessly wide from long range.
44 min: Eriksen slips a pass through to Son. The South Korean should knock it across to Kane, who’s free in the middle, but he dithers and ends up sending a nothing cross-shot out of play. Kane is unamused.
42 min: Vertonghen has a pop from 25 yards. The shot deflects off Dann and briefly looks to have inconvenienced Speroni. In the end he’s able to gather the ball easily enough.
39 min: Sissoko runs the ball out for a throw. Spurs can’t get anything going at the moment.
36 min: Zaha skitters into the Tottenham area on the right. Again Dier sticks to his task and concedes a corner. Cabaye lifts it to the far post and Dann, rising above Dier, nods the ball towards the bottom left corner. Gazzaniga finally has something to do. He does it fabulously, diving down to push the header out, and he’s fortunate enough that the ball drops to a white shirt.
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35 min: Rose bursts down the left and drills in another cross. This time Sakho’s clearance is poor, sliced into the air, but Kane, under pressure, heads over.
31 min: Aurier swings a deep cross to the far post. Loftus-Cheek falls asleep, allowing Rose to run off him and meet the ball unchallenged, but the wing-back’s header is awful.
30 min: Rose wins a corner off Loftus-Cheek on the left. Eriksen’s delivery is headed away.
28 min: A clearance runs to Eriksen. The ball bounces off his knees. The ball is hoofed clear.
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26 min: Palace are carrying out an expert spoiling exercise at the moment. Good old Mr Roy.
23 min: Kane has his head in his hands and he’s grimacing a lot. He’s limped off for now. It goes without saying that Tottenham will be desperate to see him recover swiftly. He’s having some spray on his right knee. Eventually he runs back on.
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22 min: This is the last thing Tottenham want to see: Harry Kane has stayed down after being rapped on the ankles by Timothy Fosu-Mensah. The physio is on. Kane appears to be in some pain. Mauricio Pochettino is chuntering.
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20 min: The Tottenham fans turn up the volume briefly, recognising that their team has made a sluggish start. There have been quite a few loose touches.
18 min: Winks is down after taking a knock on the ankle from Milivojevic.
17 min: The corner comes to nothing.
16 min: Schlupp clips a pass down the line for Zaha, who looks to have the pace to get away from the Tottenham defence, only for Dier to stick to him and concede a corner with a perfectly timed challenge.
14 min: Eriksen shoots well wide from 25 yards.
13 min: Tottenham are beginning to threaten. Winks slips a pass through to Rose on the left, but the wing-back’s low centre is cut out by the sliding Dann, who crucially stopped it from reaching Kane in the six-yard box.
12 min: Son brilliantly shimmies away from Dann on the left, leaving the Palace defender for dead with a lovely shake of the hips and bursting down the flank. His low cross is cut out, though.
10 min: Kane, operating a shoot-on-sight policy, turns 25 yards from goal and wallops one on target. It’s straight at Speroni, but there’s the first notice of intent from Kane.
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9 min: Tottenham hurl a couple of crosses into the area. Dann heads the first away, Sakho deals with the second.
7 min: Cabaye knocks an instant pass down the right channel, looking for Loftus-Cheek. Roses covers well, showing a good turn of pace.
5 min: Tottenham are taking their time to get into their stride.
3 min: Palace have started with impressive urgency. Zaha, a box of tricks, teases Tottenham on the left before curling a cross towards the far post. It’s the first test for Gazzaniga. Sakho attacks the cross as the goalkeeper, spreading his body, comes out unconvincingly. Neither player can make contact, although Gazzaniga manages to clip Sakho’s head. The Palace defender needs a bit of treatment.
2 min: Funnily enough, Paulo Gazzaniga’s last Premier League appearance, back in December 2015, came against Tottenham, who won 2-0 away to Southampton.
Peep! We’re off! Crystal Palace, in red and blue, get the ball rolling. They’re kicking from right to left in the first half.
Before kick-off, a minute’s remembrance. It’s impeccably observed.
The teams are out. The sun’s out. It’s almost time for football.
Of course, Tottenham like their Gazzas. Enjoy.
Required pre-match reading
Tottenham make a couple of rotational changes, Danny Rose and Serge Aurier replacing Kieran Trippier and Ben Davies, but they also have a couple of pressing injury problems. Dele Alli’s slight hamstring strain means that Son Heung-Min comes into the attack, while injuries to both Hugo Lloris and Michel Vorm have forced Mauricio Pochettino to turn to his third-choice goalkeeper, Paulo Gazzaniga. It’s the former Southampton goalkeeper’s debut. No pressure, Paulo.
Crystal Palace will hope to test Gazzaniga’s nerves with, er ... hmm ... well ... oh. The Premier League’s bottom side still don’t have a fit striker, with Christian Benteke and Connor Wickham still out, meaning that Wilfried Zaha and Andros Townsend continue as a free-jazz front two. There’s better news elsewhere, though. Yes, calf-knack victim Patrick van Aanholt has had to be replaced by Timothy Fosu-Mensah at left-back, but what a boost it is to have Mamadou Sakho back in central defence. James Tomkins drops to the bench.
Team news
Tottenham: Gazzaniga; Sanchez, Dier; Vertonghen; Aurier, Winks, Sissoko, Rose; Eriksen, Son; Kane. Subs: Whiteman, Foyth, Trippier, Dembele, Nkoudou, Llorente.
Crystal Palace: Speroni; Ward, Dann, Sakho, Fosu-Mensah; Loftus-Cheek, Milivojevic, Cabaye, Schlupp; Townsend, Zaha. Subs: Hennessey, Tomkins, Souare, Riedewald, McArthur, Sako, Puncheon.
Referee: Kevin Friend.
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Preamble
Hello. This is the kind of game that Tottenham, being Tottenham, would lose in the past. Real Madrid one minute, Crystal Palace the next; you know how these things go. This is where we’re supposed to laugh at Tottenham for being Spursy, their version of Cityitis, and tip them to lose at home to the Premier League’s bottom side four days after walloping the European champions at Wembley. What are they like!
But let’s not go down that route. Thanks to Mauricio Pochettino, the definition of Spursy is starting to change. The word was once associated with flimsiness and farce, with softness and sloppiness, and Tottenham could always be relied upon to let you down. Now, however, to be Spursy means being sturdy at the back and rather brilliant in attack. They might not win the league this season, not with Manchester City in such scintillating form, but that would not be down to any kind of mental weakness. Not under Pochettino. Standards have been raised.
Which isn’t to say that Tottenham can simply expect to turn up and have it all their own way this afternoon. They face a Palace side scrapping for their lives, meaning that they will need to guard against any complacency after reaching the last 16 of the Champions League with that win over Real. Palace remain in peril, but they have shown signs of improvement under Roy Hodgson in recent weeks and will know that Tottenham have occasionally toiled at Wembley this season. Hodgson will hope that his side can take advantage of any dip in intensity from Tottenham, both on the pitch and in the stands, where the atmosphere is likely to be a little more sedate – it is the dreaded midday kick-off, after all – than it was while Madrid were being torn apart under the lights.
Kick-off: 12pm BST.
