Crystal Palace claimed their first win of the Premier League season as Jean-Philippe Mateta's first-half strike sealed a 1-0 victory over Tottenham at Selhurst Park.
2024/2025 Premier League
1-0
Match Report
When Tottenham won at Crystal Palace on the same date last year, they moved five points clear at the top of the Premier League.
The Ange Ball revolution was in full swing, and the new boss could be found with his agent outside the dressing rooms, hugging the players and gladhanding all and sundry.
Twelve months on and Spurs left Selhurst Parkin very different mood, beaten on the road for the second game in a row, victims of Crystal Palace’s first victory of the season.
They can have few complaints. They were well beaten albeit by one goal, scored in the first half by Jean-Phillipe Mateta after a ridiculous sequence of over-elaboration by Tottenham’s central defenders and a sublime touch by Eberechi Eze.
There was much more to admire about Palace than that. Oliver Glasner’s back three were strong and mobile, the wing-backs tireless and Adam Wharton and Will Hughes excelled in midfield.
Eze flickered with some wonderful touches but it was about the whole for Glasner as he ended a torturous run of eight without a win in the Premier League.
Mateta’s goal in the 31st minute broke a disjointed contest open. Palace had started to press Tottenham with success and force mistakes at the back, where Cristian Romero was careless and casual in his distribution.
An attempted chest-pass by Romero in midfield had invited the pressure and, seconds later, he was back in his own penalty area clipping a pass square across his own goal to Micky van de Ven.
Daniel Munoz closed in as Van de Ven waited for the pass to float down, stole possession and crossed from the Palace right. Eberechi Eze arrived on the run and helped the cross towards Mateta with a delectable touch, deflecting the ball behind his left leg with the inside of his right foot on the half volley.
Anyone else and it would have been dismissed as a fluke but Eze looked for all the world as if it was intentional and Mateta applied the finish it deserved, crashed low past Guglielmo Vicario from close range.
The game was energised. Palace encouraged by their success and Spurs threatening when they made it through the press. Brennan Johnson struck a post, diverting a shot by Van de Ven from a corner.
Pedro Porro fizzed one over from just outside the penalty area and Dean Henderson made a fine reflex save to frustrate James Maddison in first-half stoppage time.
Spurs threw players forward. Henderson made another save early in the second half, at his near post from Dejan Kulusevski but Palace became increasingly dangerous on the break.
Eze had a goal ruled out for offside after a sweeping Palace counterattack. Adam Wharton gave Maddison the slip with a body swerve in midfield and picked out Eze’s run with a long pass.
He beat Vicario with a low shot on from an angle but a flag went up and replays showed him clearly a yard offside at the beginning of his run, taking his first stride into the Tottenham half.
Four minutes later, there was a loud appeal for a penalty from the home crowd. Eze wriggled in search of room for a shot and tumbled under a challenge from Van de Ven, who did have an arm across his body, but referee Darren Bond ruled there was no foul.
The decision was about right and would have been far less controversial had Bond not been readily awarding free kicks for very similar fouls everywhere else on the pitch.
Vicario saved with feet from Ibrahima Sarr and Eze volleyed wide a presentable chance by his high technical standards before Postecoglou made a triple chance, risking the surrender of control in midfield to play with four recognised forwards.
Mikey Moore was among those to make way. Moore, 17, had made his first Premier League start after sparkling displays in the Europa League, but was well contained by wing-back Munoz.
Spurs improved and finished in the ascendancy although the best save of the closing minutes came from Vicario, flying to his left to keep one out of the top corner from Wharton.
Line-ups
Crystal Palace XI: Lerma, Dean Henderson, Trevoh Chalobah, Jean-Philippe Mateta, Sarr, Eberechi Eze, Daniel Muñoz, Guehi, Maxence Lacroix, Tyrick Mitchell, Adam Wharton
Subs: Ward, Clyne, Schlupp, Hughes, Kamada, Matt Turner, Nketiah, Caleb Kporha, Asher Agbinone
Tottenham XI: Maddison, Solanke, Guglielmo Vicario, Bissouma, Romero, Kulusevski, Pedro Porro, Destiny Udogie, Brennan Johnson, Micky van de Ven, Mikey Moore
Subs: Fraser Forster, Ben Davies, Werner, Bentancur, Richarlison, Pape Matar Sarr, Radu Drăgușin, Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall