FRIDAY night football saw Tottenham kick off the weekend’s fixtures with a trip south of the river to face Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, where a victory for the north London club would have seen them cement their place at the top of the Premier League after 10 games played.
 
And Angelou Postecogleu’s men duly obliged with a 2-1 win, achieved with only one shot on target all game, courtesy of an own goal from Palace captain Joel Ward and a Hueng-Ming Son second which turned out to be the winner following a late consolation goal from Jordan Ayew for the home side.
 
“I like the way we handled tonight. It’s a difficult venue to come to but we showed real composure to control the game,” beamed the Spurs boss after the game.
 
Palace were the quicker team out of the blocks with away keeper Guglielmo Vicario forced into a couple of saves, firstly from Andre Ayew whose shot from the edge of the box stung the keeper’s hands.
 
The Spurs keeper was again called into action a couple of minutes later when a speculative pass into the edge of the box from Ward was collected by Odsonne Edouard got off a quick shot which Vicario did well to tip around the post, diving low to his left.
 
Postecogleu’s side, despite their dominance of the ball, struggled to fashion any sort of goalscoring opportunity in the first half, but seven minutes into the second half the away side took the lead courtesy of a Palace own goal.
 
Pape Matar Sarr and Pedro Porro combined well down the right before the Senegalese’s attempted centre deflected up off a Palace player and into the path of James Maddison.
 
The England man’s volleyed shot across goal seemed to be heading well wide of the Palace goal, before Palace skipper Joel Ward inadvertently prodded the ball into his own net.
 
Up to that point the home side had seemed the more likely team to score, something not lost on their manager Roy Hodgson.
 
“The own goal allowed Spurs to relax a bit more. Our encouragement to get something out of the game dissipated after that goal,” bemoaned the Palace boss.
 
The 65th minute saw Spurs double their lead through their first shot on target.
 
Substitute Brennan Johnson, only on the pitch a couple of minutes, interchanged well with Maddison down the left before squaring a simple ball to his skipper Son who was able to slot the ball home with ease from 10 yards.
 
Roy Hodgson’s men did get themselves a consolation goal after Porro misjudged a lofted ball into the Spurs area, getting caught under the flight of the ball with Ayew positioned behind him to chest the ball down and rifle a sumptuous shot it into the far corner past the diving Vicario.
 
A lengthy VAR check followed as the ball seemed to brush the Palace striker’s hand as the ball dropped down from his chested control, but the goal eventually stood to set up nervous final minutes for the team from north London.
 
And the Eagles were presented with a chance to score a sensational equaliser with the last kick of the game when the ball broke to Matheus Franca on the corner of the 6-yard box, but the youngster’s wild effort was sliced wide.
 
When asked whether Spurs could start dreaming of winning the title following their unbeaten 10 game start to the season,  Aussie Postecogleu provided a predictably grounded response.
 
“Dreams last as long as they do until someone wakes you up.”