Jekyll and a good hiding as Spurs thrash Palace
AND so the riddle of Tottenham lives on, unsolved and baffling as ever. A day will come when they conform to expectations but this was not it. Not even close, just like the game.
The enduring and frustrating mystery is which personality will come to the party, of course. That silly bunch who embarrassed themselves on this pitch against Newcastle a few weeks back? Or this one?
This one being the side that faced up to guests with a reputation for being extremely difficult and then mercilessly kicked them around the lawn for 45 minutes. Mauled them, really. Two goals for Son Heung-min, an own goal from Patrick van Aanholt and a strike for Erik Lamela, all in one half.
It was marvellous and confusing at the same time, because we simply do not yet know what to make of the class of 2019. All instincts give it an end-of-days feel — the recurring grumbles from Mauricio Pochettino, the itchy feet of Christian Eriksen, the expiring contracts, the stadium fees and the scant collection of 16 points from their past 16 league games.
For all the wonderful growth in the Pochettino-Levy partnership it would stand to reason that the rabbits will stop emerging from the hats at some point.
And so to this game, which had so much potential to inspire one of those dark nights of the soul. Hard to say when you usually stack Palace against Tottenham but easier to argue when you see what they each do and where.
This being Palace who, in their past five away fixtures in the league against the big six, have won at Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United. They are also the last side to win at Liverpool and have had a fine start this season.
Simply put, they love to counterattack. You like to go on the front foot? Cool, we will wait and punch you coming in, that is their game. Roy Hodgson has worked it a treat over the past two seasons. And Tottenham are made for that kind of t rap. Suckers for i t . Stars aligning for a kicking. Except, as it played out, Tottenham smashed Palace to smithereens. Go figure.
That they did it without Harry Kane posing a major threat and with Eriksen only sporadically effective in his first home start of t he campaign i s all t he more impressive. Likewise, that they won by four despite going through the motions in the second half. As a package it was probably their best league performance since they crushed Bournemouth on Boxing Day and suddenly the skies do not look so grey.
That ought to be some tonic for Pochettino, who had regularly griped about how ‘unsettled’ his side felt while the transfer window was open. With it now closed, some semblance of stability can resume and the manager’s hope is that Tottenham’s season will start here.
‘The team was unsettled and when the team is unsettled it is difficult to perform the way you want,’ he reiterated after this win. ‘When you are focused — and it showed in the f i rst- half performance — t he quality we have is tremendous. We show that intensity in every game and we will fight for big things. Now we need to keep pushing. It is the first step.’
It was a more upbeat tone and he wrapped up his post-match remarks with a joke that David Beckham had bumped into him after the win and spoken of his wish to play at this new stadium. Happy days all round, if only until the next time Tottenham go t he wrong way against expectations and restart the crisis narrative.
As for Palace, they find themselves in the bottom half of the table after starting the day in fourth. A weird division, truly.
In truth, Palace offered nothing. Granted, the tactical fouling of Wilfried Zaha was disruptive but they were desperately off the pace, particularly defensively.
The opening blow came after Mamadou Sakho misread the flight of a Toby Alderweireld long ball, allowing Son to get behind for his first goal of the season. Van Aanholt then scored an own-goal off a Serge Aurier cross, before a Son volley and a Lamela finish tied it up.
Palace boss Hodgson said: ‘ We didn’t show the intensity I was hoping for. But I don’t want to take too much away from Tottenham. It wasn’t purely a case of us not being anywhere near our standard, it was also a case of Tottenham playing extremely well.’