Crystal Palace 1-0 Tottenham (Mateta 31′)
SELHURST PARK — Oliver Glasner spent the final seven minutes of added time cajoling and conducting Crystal Palace’s supporters into a crescendo to help his team get over the line against Tottenham Hotspur. A thunderous roar that greeted the final whistle was proof it worked.
Palace had started the day winless and rooted in the bottom three but ended it with their first three points and optimism coursing through Selhurst Park. This was the Palace that thrilled in the last two months of last season, not the one that has underwhelmed in the first couple of this.
Had they been more clinical, Glasner’s cheerleader act would have not been required. It was a 1-0 battering against opponents who had won seven of their previous eight matches. Jean-Philippe Mateta, the poster boy for Palace’s turnaround under the Austrian, was the match-winner, but to a man Palace outworked and outplayed their Spurs counterparts.
It was a dismal display from the visitors, that second half at Brighton before the international break extrapolated over a full 90 minutes.
The post-match, on-pitch apology afterwards was a telltale sign that things went badly wrong.
Guglielmo Vicario ventured closer to an irate travelling support than most, palms turned outwards in remorse. James Maddison remained there the longest, staring absently into the stand, contemplating why he had been withdrawn early for the second week running.
The soul-searching will continue into this week. Mateta’s winning goal was a neat encapsulation of the entire game. Palace pressed superbly against a Tottenham defence that was self-destructively hellbent on trying to play through them.
A moment’s indecision by Micky van de Ven was the trigger for Daniel Munoz to charge and win the ball. The wing-back crossed to the back post for Mateta to rattle in his fifth goal of the season.
Spurs had been warned but muddled on with Plan A. Not long before conceding Vicario survived a scare when passing the ball straight out to Munoz in his desperation to not kick long.
This of course is the Ange Postecoglou way. Encouraging and then escaping an opponent’s high press is one of the key tenets of Angeball. The Australian’s mantra is non-negotiable and there was a visual demonstration of that just before half-time when Maddison was immediately reprimanded by his manager after aimlessly lashing a volley up the pitch to relieve some pressure.
On days like this, it is hard to escape the conclusion that more flexibility is required. Spurs created their best chance of the game two minutes after half-time when Vicario hoisted a ball onto Dominic Solanke’s chest; within two passes Dejan Kulusevski was forcing Dean Henderson into a hurried save in his own six-yard-box. Then they went back to passing it along their own box.
The Kulusevski chance was an anomaly in the first 15 minutes of the second half which was packed full of Palace opportunities. It was a red and blue onslaught with everything naturally running through Eberechi Eze, the playmaker linked with Spurs last summer.
Eze scored but was just caught offside by the high line, had a penalty appeal waved away after a tangle with Van de Ven and then lashed a shot just wide in the space of 10 minutes as Palace laid siege on a weary Spurs defence.
Postecoglou responded by making a triple change, which included taking Maddison and Kulusevski – his two most creative players – off. He was rightly praised for making a bold call at half-time during last weekend’s 4-1 win over West Ham, but ditching a 4-3-3 shape for a 4-2-4 this time did not work.
Solanke and Richarlison struggled to connect, while Timo Werner offered no more than Mikey Moore, the 17-year-old who became Tottenham’s youngest Premier League starter in over three decades.
As the clock ticked down, there was desperation in the stands but not on the pitch. Palace survived the closing stages pretty comfortably as Spurs tossed one hopeful cross into the box after another. Maxence Lacroix was superb, so too Marc Guehi. Why it took this long for them to earn their first three points is a mystery. Where Spurs go next is another, after another infuriating away day.
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