Crystal Palace vs Tottenham LIVE: Premier League result, final score and reaction today
Follow all the action live from Selhurst Park
Follow all the action as Crystal Palace host Tottenham in the Premier League’s early kick-off this afternoon.
Spurs sit top of the Premier League with a perfect record this season, having defeated Manchester City, Wolves and Watford thus far, but will have to make do without Cristian Romero, Giovani Lo Celso and Davinson Sanchez, who are all unavailable after travelling to South America during the international break. There are also doubts over the fitness of Son Heung-min and Oliver Skipp, with Nuno Espirito Santo likely to be forced into several changes as he aims to continue the brilliant start to his tenure.
There has been less cause for celebration for Patrick Vieira, who has taken two points from his first three games in charge at Crystal Palace. There were clear signs of improvement against West Ham before the break, though, as Conor Gallagher scored twice, while new signings Odsonne Edouard and Michael Olise could make their debuts. Follow all the action live below:
Players back out for the second-half
Crystal Palace are first to return to the turf for the second-half and look raring to go, here.
Neither side has made a change at the break but Tottenham certainly need to come out with a refreshed attitude if they’re going to win this game.
Tottenham midfield lacking creativity
Spurs’ three midfield players - Skipp, Hojbjerg, and Winks - all have solid pass completion rates in that first-half but the lack of ambition in the passing range is costing them so far.
There were plenty of occasions in that opening period where the chance to spray the ball quickly wide to the full-backs was on, but on every single occasion they chose to cut back inside and play something simple.
Nuno will need to encourage to be more adventurous in the second period if Spurs are to create anything significant, here.
Half-time and it’s Crystal Palace 0 Tottenham Hotspur 0
Half-time - It’s all level at the break after a goalless first-half but Patrick Vieira will be far more pleased with his side’s performance so far than Nuno Espirito Santo.
After foul-ridden opening half-an-hour the Eagles stepped things up with Wilfried Zaha and Conor Gallagher increasingly influential, and the on-loan Chelsea man missed the only real chance of the opening period from the Ivorian’s cut-back as Hugo Lloris reacted quickly in the Spurs goal to block the 21-year-old’s shot.
Palace ended the half with seven shots at goal while Spurs have yet to fashion a single attempt, with Harry Kane totally anonymous and isolated in attack.
Lloris saves from point blank range
42’ - By far the biggest chance of the match so far falls to Conor Gallagher just four or five yards from goal but Spurs ‘keeper Huge Loris smothers him quickly and deflects the ball wide for a corner off his shin.
The increasingly lively Wilfried Zaha beat Emerson Royal on the wing before cutting the ball back into the area.
Palace have begun creating chances in the past ten minutes or so and the visitors look like they need half-time to get a grip of themselves.
Moura with strong defensive showing
40’ - Tottenham’s attacking players have barely had a kick in this half, with Harry Kane in particular looking isolated and unable to affect the game.
An intriguing stat though is that Lucas Moura has made four tackles so far, more than anybody else out there.
Lloris deals well with dangerous corners
35’ - Palace swing in two corners in quick succession and Huge Lloris has to punch them clear under a lot of pressure inside the six-yard box.
The France ‘skipper dealt with the threat well, there.
Palace having more control in Spurs’ third
33’ - Crystal Palace are starting to control more of the ball in the final third but none of their forwards appear to be on the same wavelength, with a promising attack ending with Wilfried Zaha booming a ball towards the far post and out of play while Christian Benteke moved towards the near side.
Moments later Zaha shifts the ball past Oliver Skipp and wins a corner via small deflection.
Poor passing leading to fouls
26’ - Both sides have passing accuracy percentages in the low 80s at the moment and plenty of passes are being slightly overhit or mis-placed, which is leading to an array of small fouls in the middle third of the pitch and preventing any kind of rhythm from building up.
Really lacking in quality so far.
Gallagher sends free-kick over the bar
21’ - Dele Alli makes a clumsy challenge and Crystal Palace have a free-kick in a decent position, but Conor Gallagher gets the shape on the ball all wrong and sends it high over the bar.
Still, we’ve had our first shot of the match, at least.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments