Tottenham vs Crystal Palace final score: Antonio Conte’s unbeaten run as Spurs manager continued with a 3-0 victory over the Eagles at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Boxing Day.
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Harry Kane and Lucas Moura scored goals two minutes apart just after the half-hour mark, and Wilfried Zaha was sent off three minutes after that. Son Heung-min added a third goal with 15 minutes left to play. Six games under Conte: 4W-2D-0L.
The victory sends Tottenham into 5th place in the Premier League table (with Manchester United still to play on Monday), now above West Ham and still six points behind 4th-place Arsenal, though Spurs have three games in hand due to COVID-19 postponements. Crystal Palace remain 11th ahead of Brighton (13th) vs Brentford (12th) later on Sunday.
Tottenham vs Crystal Palace final score, stats, results
Final score: Tottenham 3, Crystal Palace 0
Goal scorers: Tottenham (Kane 32', Moura 34', Son 74'), Crystal Palace (None)
Shots: Tottenham 17, Crystal Palace 4
Shots on target: Tottenham 6, Crystal Palace 0
Possession: Tottenham 60%, Crystal Palace 40%
3 things we learned - Tottenham vs Crystal Palace
1. Spurs possessing, passing, creating, scoring: Tottenham Hotspur Football Club plays football once again. You know, all the parts of the game outside of defending for their lives parking the bus. After two years of Jose Mourinho and Nuno Espirito Santo at the helm with their largely negative tactical approaches, Conte — the Italian — appears to have given them the tactical freedom and belief to express themselves when Tottenham have the ball. For almost 30 minutes, Tottenham were frustrated with Crystal Palace’s low line of engagement, frequently running into an invisible forcefield inside 30 yards. That changed when Palace began to press higher up the field sometime between the 25th and 30th minutes. The light clicked on for Spurs, they kept playing quickly as they had been doing, and eventually the spaces in behind were wide open for Moura down the right and Son and Sergio Reguilon down the left. They camped in Crystal Palace’s defensive third until the inevitable occurred.
2. Confidence building: Zaha was sent off after his second petulant yellow card in the 37th minute, and though Spurs only scored once more against the 10 men of Crystal Palace, they took something far more important in the long-term picture: With dominance comes confidence, and no side in the Premier League had been drained of theirs quite like Spurs. They turned on the style to open the second half to put the game beyond doubt for the Eagles, even if they didn’t get the third goal for another half-hour. Everyone at Tottenham will come away from Sunday’s game feeling strong, capable and confident in a way that very few of them have done since the summer of 2019.
3. Write-off for Palace: Not only were Crystal Palace without five regular starters on Sunday, but they were also without manager Patrick Vieira, who has enjoyed a fantastic start as a Premier League manager, after he tested positive for COVID-19 this weekend. The chaos wrought by the pandemic was simply too much for them to overcome on Boxing Day. Perhaps their clash with last-place Norwich City will be kinder, in 46 hours’ time.
Man of the Match: Lucas Moura - For 30 minutes, he would have ranked as the worst performing player on the field for all the chances he squandered. By the end of the game, he had a goal and two assists.
Tottenham vs Crystal Palace highlights
Harry Kane guides home the opening goal (video)
Moura made the most of the space behind James Tomkins and Tyrick Mitchell, and Kane did the same as he split Tomkins and Joachim Andersen to get on the end of the cross. It wasn’t his most pinpoint finish, but it was on target.
Lucas Moura heads past Butland for 2-0 (goal video)
Moura was the only player fully committed to reaching the ball when Emerson Royal floated it to the top of the six-yard box, and that commitment bought Tottenham a 2-0 lead.
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Son Heung-min gets on the end of Lucas Moura’s cross for 3-0 (goal video)
Easy as you like, all the time and space in the world out wide for Moura to cross, and plenty for Son to split the defense.