Crystal Palace 1-2 Tottenham: Player Ratings as Spurs extend winning run

A hard-fought win over Palace keeps Tottenham at the top of the Premier League table.

Tottenham defeated Crystal Palace 2-1 in their Premier League game on Friday. A solid second-half display was enough to ensure Spurs’ fourth victory in a row.

What happened?

Crystal Palace stunned their opponents with a relentless wave of early attacks, forcing Guglielmo Vicario to make two brilliant saves. However, the pace of the game dropped dramatically as the first half went on, with both sides struggling to create serious goalscoring chances.

Tottenham looked much better after the break, scoring the opener only eight minutes into the second half. James Maddison’s sharp low pass across the face of the goal was smashed into the back of the net by Palace’s Joel Ward.

The goal forced Palace to push forward for the equalizer, but that only exposed their backline to more attacks. The visitors finally doubled their lead when Son Heung-min converted Brennan Johnson’s precise short pass inside the box with a powerful finish.

Palace managed to pull one back through Jordan Ayew in the extra time, but it was already too late for the hosts to mount a comeback. Spurs will stay as the Premier League leaders for at least another week, continuing their dream run under Ange Postecoglou.

Player Ratings

Crystal Palace: Johnstone (5); Ward (5), Andersen (7), Guéhi (6), Mitchell (6); Hughes (6), Doucouré (7), Lerma (5); Ayew (7), Édouard (6), Schlupp (5).

Bench: Rak-Sakyi (5), Clyne (6), Ahamada (6), Mateta (6), Franca (7).

Tottenham: Vicario (7); Porro (6), Van de Ven (7), Romero (7), Davies (6); Bissouma (7), Sarr (7); Kulusevski (6), Maddison (7), Richarlison (6); Son (7).

Bench: Royal (7), Hojbjerg (6), Johnson (7), Gil (6), Bentancur (5).