Moura, Tottenham take Crystal Palace to task 3-0 in the Premier League

Spurs use quick double to secure the win

It was a few minutes after missing that glancing head that Moura and Tottenham would find their first. A nice through ball from Emerson Royal put Lucas through on the right. Moura used his speed to out-pace Tyrick Mitchell to the ball and get a nice cross into the box to Harry Kane.

Tottenham’s talisman knew exactly what to do with the ball as he came running through and powered the first-time strike toward the goal. Butland dove and managed to get a strong hand to the ball but the power of Kane’s shot was too much and it still went into the net for the 1-0 Spurs lead.

Before Palace could even recover from the goal, Tottenham was looking to add to the lead.

Moura picked up the ball in his own end and started driving on the dribble toward the Palace half. Moura played a nice forward ball into Kane who turned and sprayed the ball wide to Royal who was darting up the flank.

Emerson played a nice high cross into the box and Moura came screaming in to meet it and drive it home. The diminutive Brazilian attacker rose up well and skyed over the much larger Joachim Andersen on the play, scoring Spurs first headed Premier League goal of this campaign.

The goal had truly put Tottenham in total control and then less than five minutes later the outcome was decided, as Wilfred Zaha lost the plot.

Zaha ended any hope of a Palace comeback

Davinson Sanchez was defending on the sideline trying to hold the ball and keep Zaha off his back. The Ivorian attacker was not pleased and used his elbow and arms to move between Sanchez and the ball shoving the big Colombian to the ground in the process. Even some 20 plus yards away there was never any doubt what Jonathan Moss was going to do.

Having already given Zaha a yellow for a dumb challenge, Moss was clearly going back to his pocket and Zaha was given his walking papers. The first yellow was questionable the second was just dumb. Given it was a very similar questionable yellow followed by a bad decision and dumb second that sent Tanganga off in the first match between the two clubs, this sending off seemed just a bit ironic.

Palace played damage control the rest of the match as Spurs commanded possession with over 70% following Zaha’s red card. Tottenham outshot Palace 10-1 from that point forward and a goal late on from Heung-Min Son – assisted by Moura – made for the perfect 3-0 win with Kane, Moura, and Son all scoring.

It was the seventh clean sheet of the season for birthday boy Hugo Lloris and his fourth since Conte took charge.

Combined with a West Ham loss, Tottenham moves up to fifth place in the League table, six points back of Arsenal – who won 3-0 themselves – with three matches in hand over the Gunners. Spurs are slated to travel to the south coast in two days to face Southampton at St. Mary’s, so a relatively comfortable win like the one on Sunday was just what the team needed.