Palace and Eze prep for FA Cup final by downing Spurs
Crystal Palace's Eberechi Eze celebrates.
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 10 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 won their Europa League semi-final against Bodo Glimt 72 hours earlier.
Spurs have their own cup final coming up, against Manchester United in Bilbao on May 22, and Ange Postecoglou made eight changes from the side that won on Bodo's plastic pitch, wary of risking more injuries.
“The last time we played on an artificial pitch (Tamworth in the FA Cup), we got two calf injuries in the next game, guys like Brennan (Johnson), Richarlison and (James) Maddison, so we were never going to risk those guys today,” said Postecoglou.
“We're trying to navigate this fine line of being prepared for a really big game but also needing to perform at levels you need to in the Premier League, because it's unforgiving.
“Some of it is psychological in terms of not being able to cope with what's before us at the moment. With elite sport, if you're a little bit off it you pay the price.”
Spurs suffered another injury blow when Dejan Kulusevski limped off after being clattered in the 18th minute, although they were able to welcome back Heung Min Son for the final half-hour.
The Korean had been out injured for a month, but was unable to salvage anything from a game in which Spurs were second-best from start to finish against a Palace side who were at full-strength except for Adam Wharton, 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 should have won by a greater margin. They 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 it.
Palace were denied repeatedly by a clutch of saves from stand-in keeper Antoni Kinsky and some dogged defending from Ben Davies and Kevin Danso.
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 might have got one goal back soon afterwards when their own Sarr, Pape Matar, headed wide from point-blank range. It was their only clear chance, and this 20th league defeat leaves them in 17th place.
Palace could have had more but Eddie Nketiah, replacing Mateta, is woefully out of form with only one league goal all season, and missed two sitters.
For manager Oliver Glasner, this was a perfect warm-up for Wembley: “Credit to the players, this performance was really good. There were lots of positives to take ahead of the FA Cup final.”
Kinsky 7; Porro 6 (Son 58) Danso 6, Davies 6, Spence 5; Gray 5, Sarr 6, Bentancur 6 (Bissouma 46); Odobert 6, Kulusevski 6 (Moore 19), Tel 6.
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.
Chris Kavanagh 7
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