Crystal Palace vs. Spurs – Crux Match for Both | OneFootball

Crystal Palace are set to host Tottenham in Sunday’s only Premier League fixture. This is a match where both sides will be hoping to bounce back from some poor form over the Christmas period.

Both Palace and Spurs have lost their previous two league matches and Eagles’ manager Oliver Glasner put out an inexperienced side in Thursday’s UEFA Conference League draw against KuPs.

Tottenham’s missing stars

Spurs go into the match against  knowing they will be without both their captain Cristian Romero and summer signing Xavi Simons as both received red cards in their 2-1 loss to Liverpool last weekend.

They join Dominic Solanke, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Destiny Udogie in Tottenham’s list of absentees. Solanke, Maddison and Kulusevski are yet to start a match this season through injury and Udogie has not featured since the beginning of December in a 2-2 draw with Newcastle. 

Romero was sent off for two yellow cards, the first for dissent after Hugo Ekitiké appeared to foul him before Liverpool’s second goal and the second for kicking out at Ibrahima Konaté who had just fouled the Argentine.

Frank was asked about the incidents in the lead-up to the Crystal Palace tie: “When you’re very passionate, sometimes you can maybe, in a few moments, lack the extra coolness,” he said.” Its’ something he’s working on. I think you have a player where the second goal for me still is a clear, clear, clear foul.  

“And, OK, I haven’t played on the highest level. Everyone who played on the highest level, if they know there’s a foul, they know it’s a foul. And they’re very, very reactive. It’s a clear foul. So he felt hard done by. 

“His mistake was running and, unfortunately, touching John Brooks. But let’s say it was a foul given then he’s not given the first yellow. You don’t get the second yellow. The second yellow is a mistake, obviously, from Cuti, which he’s agreed on.”

Kevin Danso has filled in for Romero and Micky van de Ven when they have not been able to play recently and he will have to do the same against Palace.

Crystal Palace’s intense fixture pile-up

Spurs will have had a full week between their matches against Liverpool and Palace, a luxury not afforded to the south London side. As noted in other articles, the Eagles have the toughest schedule during the Crucible.

Instead, they played against KuPs on Thursday, were embarrassed at Leeds on Saturday, and then lost on penalties against Arsenal on Tuesday before Sunday’s clash against Tottenham.

Marc Guéhi’s injury-time equaliser in the EFL Cup quarter-final against Arsenal meant Palace had to go the full way in that match which will not help their fitness. Key players including Guéhi, Jean-Philippe Mateta, Adam Wharton and more played the full match on Tuesday.

Glasner spoke about his squad’s plans to prepare for the match against Spurs: “The next two days, they [the players] won’t hear anything,” he said. “I think now it’s so important to switch off and not talk about football. Everybody has a family. The parents deserve that their sons come home, not the football player comes home, and the wives, the girlfriends, the children, [deserve] that the dad and the husband is now at home, not the football player, talking about football.

“Two and a half days, really switching off completely. We have five games in the next two weeks, but now it’s really, leave football.

“Then, when we meet on the 26th in the afternoon, we will analyse this game today. Of course we will. I’m pretty sure we’ll take many positives from it. This performance, and the switch of the performance especially, should give us confidence, definitely.”