Evra’s not impressed but Mourinho says Lloris is best keeper in top flight

JOSE MOURINHO branded Hugo Lloris the best goalkeeper in the Premier League despite criticism of the Tottenham captain for his role in Crystal Palace’s late equaliser. Sky Sports pundit Patrice Evra — a former France team-mate — said Lloris should have come off his line to clear the Eberechi Eze free-kick that led to Jeffrey Schlupp’s goal. ‘Lloris is a great goalkeeper, but he always stays on his line. He needs to claim or punch the ball away,’ said Evra. ‘It’s a good reaction (from Schlupp). But I never see him coming off his line.’

Clearly stung by that view, Spurs boss Mourinho retorted: ‘My goalkeeper is the best in the Premier League, so I would never be critical of the best goalkeeper in the Premier League. ‘If I have to blame anybody, then I have to blame ourselves, the team. The ones that win, the ones that draw and the ones that lose. Some guys, they have a philosophy of “they lost, we drew and I won”, but that’s not us. ‘Us is everything about us. So we have to blame ourselves for not being able to do what we did in the first half. ‘We have more points than three hours ago, so we add a point, but you play to win three points, so if you get one, you lose two.’ Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson, meanwhile, played down suggestions that Covid regulations were breached during Schlupp’s leveller. Fans appeared to get very close to Palace’s players as they celebrated — but Hodgson said: ‘I didn’t even see it, I was guilty of paying too much attention to the football.’