By Oliver Powell
Tottenham manager Igor Tudor reiterated his belief that the club can find results after a 3-1 defeat to Crystal Palace left them one point above the drop.
The interim boss has lost all three of his games in charge, piling pressure on Tottenham’s precarious position.
Spurs took the lead against the Eagles courtesy of Dominic Solanke, but a frenzied 15-minute end to the first half saw the home side concede three times and lose Micky van de Ven to a red card.
Tudor the optimist
Tottenham, winless in their last 11 Premier League matches, now find themselves on the cusp of the bottom three thanks to positive results for Nottingham Forest and West Ham United in Gameweek 29.
With a trip to Anfield up next, sandwiched between Champions League ties with Atlético Madrid, Spurs fans are becoming accustomed to the reality of relegation.
However, Tudor saw enough in the Palace defeat to convince him the tide will turn.
In his post-match press conference, he said: “I will tell you now, maybe it will sound strange, but I believe more after this game than I believed before. I saw something.
“I need to choose the right guys because the boat is going in the direction that I want to go and needs to go and who is in the boat can stay. Otherwise, they can leave the boat.”
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Palace change fortunes
It was mere weeks ago that Crystal Palace and Oliver Glasner were banded in with Spurs and the other strugglers as relegation candidates, but only one side at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium looked like a Premier League team.
Palace were unfortunate not to go ahead, with Ismaïla Sarr’s nose ruling him offside, but the Van de Ven red was capitalised on with a Sarr brace and Jørgen Strand Larsen goal.
The match sent a large portion of the home supporters to the exits before the second half even began.
Despite the pressure on Glasner amid poor form and given his confirmed exit at the end of the season, the Austrian has lifted Palace to 10 points clear of the drop.
Indeed, he was delighted with his players’ efforts at Spurs.
“We were 1-0 down and I love the reaction of the team today. The stadium was loud, it looked like they got a little bit of belief, but we played amazing,” he noted.
“Getting the penalty, red card, scoring two fantastic goals. Second half, we didn’t control the game how we should control it. This is what we can improve and learn from today’s game.
“But overall a great win here at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.”
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European ventures await
Both teams have a weekend off due to early FA Cup exits, with attention now flipping to Europe.
Tottenham travel to Atlético Madrid on Tuesday and Crystal Palace welcome AEK Larnaca in the Conference League on Thursday.
The potential of European silverware – to add to the FA Cup and Community Shield – will be welcome motivation for Glasner’s troops in a middling domestic campaign.
Spurs, meanwhile, must contend with competing against one of Europe’s ‘big boys’ at the Wanda Metropolitano despite the crippling fear of relegation.
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