Eze brace ends Palace's away losing run against Tottenham

Palace  were at full-strength except for Adam Wharton, who was rested ahead of next week's cup final after tweaking an ankle in training.

BRACE: Crystal Palace's Eberechi Eze scored a brace for his side to secure their first win in nine goes away to Tottenham. 

Premier League: Tottenham 0 Crystal Palace 2 (Eze 45’, 48’)

Crystal Palace had the perfect dress rehearsal for next week's FA Cup final against Manchester City at Wembley by leaving another north London stadium with three points for the first time in ten seasons.

Eberechi Eze scored two goals, one each side of half-time, to end a run of nine successive defeats at Tottenham, who were unrecognisable from the side that reached the Europa League final by beating Bodo Glimt 72 hours earlier.

Ange Postecoglou made eight changes from the side that won in Norway on Thursday, and soon had to make another when Dejan Kulusevski limped off injured after a clattering tackle in the 19th minute.

Palace, by contrast were at full-strength except for Adam Wharton, who was rested ahead of next week's cup final after tweaking an ankle in training.

Not surprisingly, Palace dominated what was effectively Tottenham's reserves, and could have been 3-0 ahead by half-time but for VAR and some desperate defending from the home side. Ismaila Sarr put the ball in the net after only eight minutes, but Jean-Philippe Mateta was offside in the build-up. Shortly before half-time, Maxence Lacroix powered in a header from a corner, but the ball hit team-mate Marc Guehi's arm on the way and the goal was ruled out.

Moments later Palace thought they had a third goal ruled out, when VAR questioned whether Daniel Munoz had run from an offside position before squaring the ball for Eze to roll in a simple finish, but this time the goal stood – a case of third time lucky, perhaps, except the visitors thoroughly deserved their lead.

A reshuffled Spurs side struggle to contain Palace, who were denied repeatedly by clutch of saves from stand-in keeper Antoni Kinsky and some dogged defending from Ben Davies.

It got better for Palace when Eze made it 2-0 three minutes into the second-half, shooting home from a central position again after Sarr's run and low cross from the right.

Spurs should have got one goal back soon afterwards when their own Sarr, Pape Matar, headed Pedro Porro's wide of the far post from point-blank range. The biggest cheer from home supporters came just before the hour mark when Heung Min Son went on as substitute, his first appearance in a month. But apart from two blocked shots, the Korean could not impose himself.

Eddie Nketiah had chances to increase Palace's lead after replacing Mateta, but the former Arsenal looks out of confidence in front of goal, and will struggle for a place in Palace's cup final line-up.

For manager Oliver Glasner, however, this was a perfect warm-up for Wembley and completed a rare double over Tottenham, whose defeat, coupled with West Ham’s win at Manchester Untied, means they drop to 17th place with just two games to go.

Tottenham (4-3-3): Kinsky 7; Porro 6 (Son 58) Danso 6, Davies 7, Spence 5; Gray 5, Sarr 6, Bentancur 6 (Bissouma 46); Odobert 6, Kulusevski 6 (Moore 19), Tel 6 

C Palace (3-4-3): Henderson 6; Richards 6, Lacroix 6, Guehi 6; Munoz 7, Hughes 6 (Devenny 86), Lerma 6 (Kamada 60), Mitchell 6 (Chilwell 60); Sarr 7 (Esse 78), Mateta 7 (Nketiah 60), Eze 8.

Referee: C Kavanagh.