Crystal Palace 0-4 Tottenham Hotspur
by Dom Smith
at Selhurst Park

WHATEVER he said worked. Once Antonio Conte had lectured his laboured Tottenham team at the interval, they returned from the dressing room a totally different proposition. For Crystal Palace, it proved too much to deal with. Patrick Vieira is searching for consistency from his Eagles. But Harry Kane and Son Heung-min don’t always give you what you want.

Spurs had the first chance of this, their first match of the new year as Bryan Gil used his poise to wriggle into a shooting position and test Vicente Guaita.

Tottenham are overly reliant on Harry Kane to hold the ball up, link play and create chances. When they are banked in their own half and up against it — which in the first half they often were — it looks like the most difficult thing in the world for Antonio Conte’s side to get out of the press and progress up the pitch.