Hotspur HQ
Fansided

Crystal Palace vs Tottenham preview

By Zaph Hutson

HUDDERSFIELD, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 30: Toby Alderweireld of Tottenham Hotspur arrives at the stadium prior to the Premier League match between Huddersfield Town and Tottenham Hotspur at John Smith's Stadium on September 30, 2017 in Huddersfield, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
HUDDERSFIELD, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 30: Toby Alderweireld of Tottenham Hotspur arrives at the stadium prior to the Premier League match between Huddersfield Town and Tottenham Hotspur at John Smith's Stadium on September 30, 2017 in Huddersfield, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Tottenham will travel to Selhurst Park to take on Crystal Palace today. Aside from the obvious, there are many reasons why Spurs will come away with 3 points in the contest.

Malice at the Palace

Palace now sits at 14th place, which is actually quite high considering their recent form. They have lost 4 out of their last 5 games and are just 2 points above the relegation zone.

Let’s take a look at the Palace offense. In the 11 matches they have played this season, somehow they have only scored 8 times.

Wilfred Zaha is their only player to score in more than one game. He is is essentially their entire attacking threat so locking him down would mean a sure victory. This means that Alderweireld and (the likely starting) Sanchez will have to make sure he doesn’t make any dangerous runs.

The other Palace player that has more than one goal is Luka Milivojevic. You cannot call him a threat, though. He has gotten his two goals only via penalties, which Palace are quite good at producing. This means that Hugo Lloris needs to keep a cool head. The last thing that is needed is a repeat of his red-card display against PSV Eindhoven.

Palace’s defense is the only thing keeping them in 14th place. They have conceded as many goals as Leicester City and fewer than Manchester United- though that isn’t saying much.

Even so, a fully-operational Spurs offense will surely break through Palace’s defense a few times. The electric Lucas Moura will add some serious speed to the attack.

Taking a look at Tottenham, they have had a brilliant start to the season. The 24 points they have won were gained even when many big players were out with injury. Now most of them are back.

Both Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen are fully recovered and have gotten in some good playing time. Harry Kane is in top form, coming off of a dominant 2-goal performance in the last PSV match.

Next. Spurs have ultra-value players. dark

In that game, Spurs produced an insane amount of 30 shots. Look for them to bring that same heat today.