Spurs win ugly
Pochettino delight as Foyth earns victory
IF THIS marked the official start of the long, hard slog of the cold, dark months which often defines campaigns, then Tottenham will draw considerable hope from an ugly game at Selhurst Park.
Rain lashed down, wind swirled and conditions were frightful for both. And Tottenham are nowhere near hitting their stride, nowhere close to how they can play.
And yet they won and are joint second on points in the Premier League. They would surely have taken that off the back of a draining World Cup for nine of their first-team players, a summer of transfer in activity and a moralesapping aborted move into a prospective new stadium.
If the ability to scrap and fight for points in inhospitable conditions with a side weakened by injury and rotation is a measure if your character, then Tottenham passed.
There was nothing fragile about this win. It was as far removed from the popular image of Spurs as a lightweight team as could be imagined: it was a victory hewn from pure grit. The Argentine Juan Foyth,w ho had endure da miserable Premier League debut last weekend, was the man who made the difference.
Yet there was another shard of light for Spurs. After a troubled few months, might we have seen a return to the best of Hugo Lloris?
Certainly he was crucial to Tottenham’s win, his save at the death from Alexander Sorloth just one of a string of interventions.
As for Palace, the moment you heard Wilf Zaha was missing with a hamstring injury you feared this would not be the afternoon when they recorded their first home win of the season. It is September 2016 when they last won a league game without Zaha.
This looked like the top-flight as we once knew it, a throwback to the 1990s when mediocre sides ground out performances of variable quality.
On a dark, rain-sodden evening in south London a solid 4-4-2 initially frustrated a Tottenham side which saw six changes from the PSV Eindhoven game. Yet while Palace were organised down to the last inch in terms of their shape, a real credit to a Roy Hodgson side, they also started on the front foot. A succession of corners created various degrees of distress for Spurs.
Foyth l ooked vulnerable, his channel targeted and at one stage he was so nervous he played a pass to Lloris out for a corner.
On 15 minutes Sakho launched a pass over his head and Andros Townsend, playing centrally, looked in the clear before hitting the side netting. Tottenham did find their range, but not with any authority. Moussa Sissoko went on an unlikely mazy run on 19 minutes which saw him go past Jordan Ayew, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and James Tomkins before a Sakho block denied him.
Tottenham’s injury misfortunes grew when Kieran Trippier had to limp off on 23 minutes to be replaced by Serge Aurier.
Dele Alli headed wide from a Ben Davies cross on 28 minutes and Luka Mi livojevic,ot her wise excellent, looked to have erred fatally on 30 minutes, slipping on the wet turf and allowing Harry Kane to size up a shot.
The England captain struck well but Wayne Hennessey dived to turn it away. Similarly a mistimed Sakho back pass almost let in Lucas Moura but Hennessey saved his defender.
Moura connected with a Aurier cross on 41 minutes, taking the ball from team-mate Alli, who looked far better placed to score.
But it was a scrappy, unappealing first half. When a played as gifted as Alli hacked a ball wide to concede a corner at the death, it summed up the quality. Foyth had given away two penalties on his de but against Wolves the previous weekend.
And he hadn’t looked especially comfortable in the driving wind and rain; more a weak link waiting to be exploited.
But the 20-year-old Argentine was the quickest off the mark when a game that was in danger of becoming an attrition al slog suddenly became an opportunity.
Moura had lifted a 65th minute corner into Kane and his header had bounced off t he knee of Milivojevic and up into six-yard box.
While Palace players seemed to freeze, Foyth reacted and headed home the winner.
His joy was obvious as was that of his team-mates, all of whom other than Lloris ran to congratulate him. There was presumably an element of relief. Hodgson’s team don’t give much away.
And Tottenham weren’t at their best yesterday. Indeed, Palace on the break and from set- pieces looked threatening. Tomkins has
headed wide from Milivojevic’s corner on 53 minutes and once Spurs had scored Palace rallied, Jeffrey Schlupp’s shot Lloris doing well to push wide.
In the ensuing melee Erik Lamela cut his head and although ref Jonathan Moss allowed the Palace attack to run, eventually the sight of a player with a serious head injury brough proceedings to a halt.
The Argentine was replaced by Harry Winks.
Shortly after a deflection sat up for Townsend, who took it on his chest and volleyed the ball only for Lloris to push wide.
Then came the best chance of the match for Palace as Sorloth found himself with just the keeper to beat at close range but shot straight at Lloris and Spurs were home if not dry.