Spurs 1 Crystal Palace 3
A stadium in utter shock in the first half. Looking at the fixtures Spurs have coming up on the horizon this is one were they really needed to win to give themselves some breathing space in the relegation battle, the first half was pretty even but lacking in quality from both sides until Ismaila Sarr opened the scoring for Crystal Palace with an effort that deflected off Porro over Vicario to give Palace the lead, or so they thought as the goal got ruled out by VAR as Sarr’s nose was offside in the image shown by the Premier League. Just five minutes later Solanke did open the scoring after some great work from Archie Gray down the line who gave Solanke an easy finish in the end. Just as things were going well for Spurs Danso loses a header to Strand-Larsen which puts Sarr clean through on goal only to be pulled back by Van De Ven in the box giving away a penalty and getting himself sent off just four minutes after the Spurs goal, Sarr dispatched the penalty to bring Palace level with Spurs down to 10-men. It took just five minutes for Palace to take the lead as Wharton played a beautiful pass through to Strand Larsen who poked it through Vicario’s legs to give Palace the lead in the first minute of added time in the first half. Then a few minutes later Wharton played another beautiful pass over the top to Sarr who raced in and finished past Vicario to give Palace a cushion going into half-time. Spurs huffed and puffed in the second half but couldn’t score to get back into the game as they look closer to the relegation spots yet again.
Van De Ven costs his team the game. Spurs weren’t playing too badly in that first half and were able to go in front thanks to some brilliant work from Archie Gray and a good finish from Solanke but one silly mistake can turn the game on its head completely and that’s what happened tonight. It’s easy to say in hindsight but surely you just let Sarr run through on goal and trust your goalkeeper instead of giving away a penalty and getting yourself sent off in the process, it’s so poor from the captain who’s been a disaster all season at the back for Spurs alongside Romero and will now miss the trip to Anfield next week were Spurs could find themselves in 18th if results don’t go their way. The Spurs senior players have been letting their team down all season and have a big couple of months ahead to try and keep their team in the league, are they up to the ask? I’m not so sure.
A big result for Crystal Palace. Palace made the most of the man advantage and took the game away from Spurs in ten minutes ruthlessly as Sarr, Strand Larsen and Wharton all showed immense quality to score three goals in a matter of minutes. Strand Larsen has been a brilliant addition to this Palace side holding up the ball brilliantly all night and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s Palaces’ main striker even when Mateta comes back from injury. Ismaila Sarr was giving the Spurs defenders nightmares all night and was unlucky not to get his hat-trick with VAR ruling out the first goal for his nose being offside. Adam Wharton was absolutely brilliant as always and we’ll get onto him in the next point but I have to give a shout out to the Palace defenders who were brilliant on the night, especially Clyne who had to come on for Munoz who looked like he dislocated his shoulder in the first 10 minutes, a big result for Palace who now can focus on the Conference League for the rest of the season.
A masterclass from Adam Wharton in that midfield. I’m such a big fan of Adam Wharton and he yet again ran rings around a ‘big’ sides midfield like he did against United at Old Trafford on Sunday, he kept finding little pockets that you’d expect a number 10 to find and Tottenham couldn’t get to grips with him all night even with 11 men. The pass for the second Palace goal was magnificent and weighted to perfection to let Strand Larsen hit it first time past Vicario in the Spurs net, the pass for the third Palace goal was another brilliant one but I do wonder why Vicario didn’t come out sooner as it looked like it took an age for Sarr to catch up to it and by that point he just poked it past the Spurs keeper to all but finish the game. Wharton will no doubt be on the plane to the USA in the summer but I wonder how much Tuchel will use him seeing as he has about a million options in there by the looks of it. He’s another player I’d absolutely love at United next season but he’s probably another one that would go for around that £100 million mark knowing how Palace negotiate for their players, there’ll be no shortage of suitors for his signature in the summer, hopefully he’s at United next season.
The fear of relegation looms large over the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. You could sense it when Spurs went down to 10-men as the cameras showed the despair on the faces of the Spurs fans at the stadium as the realisation that their team actually might get relegated dawned on them. I’ve been saying all season that they have too much quality to go down but they just keep on losing games and they have some really tough fixtures going into the last 9 games of the season, they really could be 18th by the end of next weekend having to play Liverpool at Anfield whilst Nottingham Forest and West Ham look far more up for the battle than most of those Spurs players at the minute. Only three points separates 18th and 15th but only Spurs and Nottingham Forest have games in Europe next week which could take priority depending on the managers. I still can’t really fathom Spurs going down this season but the possibility is getting realer as every week passes that they don’t win in the league, they have yet to win a Premier League match in 2026 which is mental to me, it’s Atletico Madrid next in Spain on Tuesday as Spurs look to give their fans something to cheer in what’s been a season from hell at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, could they pull off a shock in Europe? We’ll see on Tuesday.