Juan Foyth repaid Mauricio Pochettino's faith by scoring the decisive goal as Tottenham left Crystal Palace with a 1-0 Premier League triumph on Saturday, their fourth in a row across all competitions.
2018/2019 Premier League
0-1
Match Reports
Tottenham claimed a fourth successive win thanks to Juan Foyth's second-half header in a 1-0 defeat of Crystal Palace.
The young centre-back had received criticism for a difficult Premier League debut in last week's 3-2 win over Wolves, but Pochettino refused to drop Foyth and he subsequently secured the spoils for Spurs in a poor match at sodden Selhurst Park.
Chances were few and far between during an unremarkable first half that was more notable for the weather than the standard of football on display.
The match opened up a little in the second half and Foyth scored his first Spurs goal, making the most of static Palace defending and consigning Roy Hodgson's men to a fifth defeat in six Premier League outings.
The hosts crafted the first chance of the game through former Spurs winger Andros Townsend in the 16th minute, though his effort hit the side-netting and did not worry Hugo Lloris.
Spurs struggled to create opportunities of their own, but Harry Kane did try his luck from distance just after the half-hour and forced Wayne Hennessey into a flying save.
Palace should have gone ahead early in the second half, but James Tomkins inexplicably headed a corner wide from close range.
Foyth did not make the same mistake, however, as the centre-back nodded in after Kane's initial header had been blocked 24th minutes from time.
Palace squandered their final chance late on when Alexander Sorloth blasted straight at Lloris from about eight yards, leaving Hodgson with his head in his hands as Spurs saw things out.
Match Events
27' CHANCE! Alli's header wide out
CHANCE! Davies does well to dig out a cross and it finds Alli unmarked about 12 yards out. He looks to place a header - maybe trying to pass it to Kane instead of shoot - and it goes a few yards wide of goal.
30' CHANCE! Kane's shot saved
SHOT! Kane has a go from 25 yards out and Hennessey dives and pushes the shot away.
66'GOAL! Crystal Palace 0-1 Tottenham (Foyth)
After conceding two penalties on his debut last week, Foyth has scored his first Premier League goal.
It's really slack defending from Palace as Kane wins a header from a corner which deflects off McArthur and loops up into the air.
Line-ups
Crystal Palace XI: Sakho, W. Hennessey, Tomkins, McArthur, C. Kouyaté, Townsend, Van Aanholt, L. Milivojević, Ayew, Meyer, Aaron Wan-Bissaka
Subs: Puncheon, M.Kelly, Vicente Guaita, J.Ward, Schlupp, A. Sørloth, Riedewald
Tottenham XI: H. Lloris, M.Sissoko, Wanyama, T. Alderweireld, Lamela, K. Trippier, Lucas, H. Kane, B.Davies, D. Alli, J.Foyth
Subs: F.Llorente, C. Eriksen, Son Heung-Min, Aurier, Gazzaniga, E. Dier, Winks