Christian Eriksen cracker keeps title race on the boil

Crystal Palace 0 Spurs 1: The Premier League title race is still alive, as Christian Eriksen struck a spectacular late winner to extend Tottenham’s winning run to eight league games and closed the gap to Chelsea to four points once again.

Thu, 27 Apr, 2017 - 01:00

Gerry Cox

Mauricio Pochettino’s men are nothing if not determined, and having seen Chelsea retake a seven-point lead the night before with victory over Southampton, responded in kind with a dogged victory over a Palace side that are still not certain of safety.

It was a must-win game for Spurs, who started to crumble at this stage of the season last year as they tried to make up ground on Leicester City, but the message from the Spurs camp and their noisy supporters was loud and clear “Chelsea – we are coming for you.” The question beforehand was how Spurs would react after their FA Cup semi-final defeat by the Blues at the weekend, and there looked to be some heavy legs if not heavy hearts in their ranks.

Mousa Dembele, so often a powerhouse in midfield this season, looked leg-weary at times, struggling to keep the ball or mis-timing tackles to the extent that Jon Moss had to give him a stark warning at the end of the first-half that he had run out of lives – the next foul would result in a booking.

Victor Wanyama, his partner in midfield, had already received one yellow card, for a foul on Luka milijovvevic and was somehow fortunate not to get a second for tripping Andros Townsend. It was perhaps borne out of frustration, as Palace gave Tottenham no time nor space in midfield, and it was no great surprise to see both of them replaced at half-time.

Tottenham had struggled to find their rhythm against a Palace side who are considerably fitter and better organised than when Sam Allardyce took over earlier this season. They went at Spurs from the start, forcing mistakes as Tottenham tried to play out from the back, and causing them plenty of problems with the pace and trickery of Townsend and his fellow winger Wilfriend Zaha.

It was Townsend who set up Christian Benteke for Palace’s best chance of the half, when his unselfish pass gave the striker a clear sight of goal from 15 yards. But Benteke’s shot was too tame and allowed Huge Lloris to make a comfortable low save.

Townsend then tried his luck as he ran in on goal, but his shot was too high.

Spurs were restricted to long shots for most of the half, and when Eriksen finally found a gap in Palace’s packed defence, his shot from a tight angle was held easily by Wayne Hennessey.

Harry Kane worked manfully up front for Tottenham but was largely well shackled by Mamadou Sakho, Palace’s best player once again. The Eagles suffered a blow, however, when Sakho went off injured on the hour mark, after turning his ankle in a tussle with Kane.

Spurs had switched from a back three to a 4-3-3 formation at half-time, and they started the second-half with more attacking intent. Dele Alli, crowned the PFA’s Young Player of the Year on Sunday, should have scored his 21st goal of the season on the hour mark, when he ghosted in on the blindside of Palace’s defence to meet Kyle Walker’s cross. But the youngster managed to put his shot wide of the far post from barely five yards.

Alli found the target moments later with a curled shot from outside the penalty area, but Hennessey was equal to it, and Walker then fired wide from a similar distance.

But when Eriksen was given another sight of goal, from even greater distance after fine hold-up play from Kane, the Dane delievered. He was fully 30 yards from goal when he decided to go for it, and his aim was true as his shot arrowed low into the corner of Hennessey’s goal.

It was a fitting reward for the Dane, who kept his composure throughout a rough-and-tumble first half and then rose above those around him to control the game from central midfield, always finding an extra pocket of space in which to weight up his options – and he rarely made the wrong choice.

Eriksen even contributed with tackles and blocks as Spurs looked to ride out the closing stages, which included seven minutes of stoppage time. They had chances to increase their lead, too, with Eric Dier heading a corner over and Kane being denied by a last-gasp tackle.

Spurs were comfortable in the end, and with five games to go, are still within touching distance of Chelsea.

CRYSTAL PALACE 4-5-1:

Hennessey 6;Ward 6, Kelly 6, Sakho 7 (Delaney 58), Schlupp 6; Zaha 7, Milivojevic 7, McArthur 6 (Cabaye65) , Puncheon 6, Townsend 7; Benteke 6 (Campbell 82)

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 3-4-2-1:

Lloris 6; Alderweireld 7, Dier 6, Vertonghen 7; Walker 6, Wanyama 6 (Sissoko 46), Dembele 6 (Son 46), Davies 6; Eriksen 9, Alli 7 (Tripper 90+5) Kane 8

Ref:

J Moss