Some thoughts on Spurs’ important 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace in midweek:

There was little time for the Spurs players and supporters to dwell on their dramatic elimination from the FA cup, in last Saturday’s semi-final defeat at the hands of Chelsea, at Wembley stadium. Mauricio Pochettino’s side knew they had to bounce back in midweek with the visit of Crystal Palace providing Spurs with the opportunity to close the gap at the top to four points, following Chelsea’s win over Southampton the previous night. We went into Wednesday’s night match knowing how very tough 3 points would be to achieve at Selhurst park, with Sam Allardyce’s inform eagles showing their dramatic improvement under Allardyce, with notable wins over Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool recorded in the past couple of weeks. The tough task ahead of us became clear to see in the opening stages of the game, Palace were dangerous with the speedy Wilfred Zaha constantly bothering our fullbacks. Their well structured and ultra defensive style of play, was stifling Pochettino’s sides creative play. And that consistently solid style of play would continue throughout the game, few clear cut chances and little to shout about. In fact that was the pattern for the majority of the game, apart from when Dele Alli ghosted in at the near post before putting the ball narrowly wide of Hennessy’s post. Palace began to tire in the final quarter of the game, but Pochettino’s resilient side still pushed to create that bit of magic that would put them ahead. And that bit of magic duly arrived on 78 minutes when out of nothing, Christian Eriksen decided to an unleash a thumping effort from long range, his effort dipping as it flew into the bottom corner of Hennessy’s net, scenes of elation followed in the away end!

The disappointment of the weekend put long behind for the Spurs players, as they fought hard to secure an invaluable three points in south London. It may not have been the most aesthetically pleasing game to watch for the neutral, but Pochettino’s side dug deep to grind out a precious victory that keeps them right in the title race, I shall be publishing a piece on the profound influence that man of the match Christian Eriksen has had on our season, in the coming days. Roll on Sunday, COYS!