Premier League: Tottenham 1 (Solanke 34) Crystal Palace 3 (Sarr 40, 45+7, Strand Larsen 45+1)
Tottenham are sinking in a sea of venom. Relegation is no longer a distant prospect for the owners of the finest stadium in the country. They have rolled the dice, replacing Thomas Frank with a bewildered Igor Tudor, but their flaws are starting to look overwhelming and lie only a point above the bottom three after their complete lack of unity and cohesion was exposed in this shambolic defeat to Crystal Palace.
This is getting all too real. Tottenham have lost all three of their games since appointing Tudor as their interim manager and are not coping with the pressure. Nottingham Forest and a resurgent West Ham are hot on their heels but Tottenham have frozen. They are winless since the turn of the year and could not even kick on after going 1-0 up against Palace.
It was the cue for an implosion. Micky van de Ven was soon sent off for fouling Ismaïla Sarr and will miss the trip to Anfield later next weekend. Tottenham were gutless. Down to 10 men, they collapsed before half-time, conceding three in the space of 11 minutes to turn the atmosphere toxic and allow Palace to secure a win that surely secures their Premier League place for another season.
Tudor changed system more out of hope than expectation. The clunky 4-4-2 from the defeat to Fulham was out. Conor Gallagher, Xavi Simons and Yves Bissouma dropped to the bench and Radu Dragusin was not even worthy of a place in the squad. Would this low level shock therapy be enough? Tudor opted for a deep 3-4-3 formation, with Archie Gray and Souza as the wing-backs, and it took Tottenham a while to find their bearings. They were under plenty of aerial pressure during the early stages and could have fallen behind inside the opening minute, only for Guglielmo Vicario to react well to a sharp shot from Adam Wharton.
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There were no discernible patterns to Tottenham’s football for half an hour. Mathys Tel had a shot from the left. Randal Kolo Muani turned into trouble a lot. Souza, the 19-year-old Brazilian who joined from Santos in January, stuck to his task on his full debut. Daniel Muñoz was forced to depart early after being taken out by the Tottenham youngster.
For a moment it seemed fate was with Tottenham. Palace thought they were ahead when Evann Guessand rolled the ball across for Sarr to score. Out came those dreaded VAR lines, though. To his eternal shame Sarr had failed to keep a bit of his face onside. It was hard not to be grateful that the technology is now in place to detect such egregious offences, even if the Palace fans seemed less than impressed when the decision to disallow the goal was shown on the big screens.
Maybe it was Tottenham’s night. Soon they led, Dominic Solanke converting a cut-back from Sarr. But the positivity lasted six minutes, evaporating when Jørgen Strand Larsen’s flick ran through to Sarr and Van de Ven conceded a penalty after pulling the forward back.
It was such witless defending. The punishment was severe: a penalty and a red card for the denial of an obvious goalscoring opportunity. Tudor adjusted, Bissouma and Gallagher on for Kolo Muani and Souza, but the game was running away from him. Sarr converted the penalty for 1-1 and Tottenham collapsed. With Cristian Romero already suspended, the defence could not absorb the loss of Van de Ven, and Palace knew it. They pushed again and led when Guessand dispossessed Sarr before Wharton’s deft pass sent Strand Larsen through to finish well.
Wharton was having the time of his life. He soon swept another pass through from deep. It went past João Palhinha and ran to Sarr, who capitalised on Vicario’s indecision and made it 3-1 by poking the ball under the goalkeeper.
The crowd watched it unfold in disbelief. There were boos when Vicario next touched the ball. Meanwhile some fans screamed at a couple of Tottenham analysts in the press box. Another unhappy customer accused the board of killing the club.
It was poisonous and yet somehow also apathetic. At half-time there were images of fans streaming away from the stadium. To his credit Tudor decided to stay for the second half. The supposed firefighter had accused Tottenham of lacking in attack, midfield, defence and the brain after losing to Fulham. Looking at Van de Ven’s dismissal, he probably had a point about the stupidity. On the plus side there was at least a show of heart from Tottenham at the start of the second half, a determined run from Gray keeping Palace’s defenders on their toes.
But there was a reminder of Tottenham’s transfer failings when Palace brought on Brennan Johnson. Why was he allowed to leave in January? Tudor could have used the winger. Then again he probably would not have known where to play him. – Guardian
