TOTTENHAM narrowly beat bottom of the table Crystal Palace 1-0 thanks to Son Heung-min yesterday but Ruben Loftus-Cheek believes regardless of the defeat Palace can start to climb up the table. 

“I think we are building confidence, especially from a month ago,” he said. “We are working hard on the training pitch and I think that’s showing with the confidence out there. We managed to hold them off for quite a while, one opportunity for a big team and they can punish you. We were unlucky on that occasion.”

The midfielder has recently caught Gareth Southgate’s eye as he received his first England senior call-up last week. Loftus-Cheek has worked with Southgate at youth level and said: “I wasn’t expecting it. When you are a young player you just work hard in training and give everything in games. I’m really happy that it happened.

“I think there is some real young English talent coming through, you’ve seen it in the summer. The English teams did well. It’s the game time the players need and I’m getting that right now. I’m trying to improve as much as I can, it’s been a rough start for me with injuries.”

Loftus-Cheek was delighted to have teammate Wilfred Zaha back in action after a lengthy injury spell. “He adds another dimension up-front which we can utilise and go in behind. It’s a good addition to the team that we missed at the star.”

Zaha has been impressive since his return, scoring crucial goals for Palace, but couldn’t find the back of the net against debutant Paulo Gazzaniga. The Argentinian kept a clean sheet for Spurs, with Hugo Lloris sidelined after picking up a groin injury in last week’s emphatic win against Real Madrid in Spurs Champions League.