Tottenham vs Crystal Palace looks like the perfect fixture for Spurs after the win at Chelsea, and that is exactly why it worries us.
Every number points the same way before Saturday’s 5.30pm kick-off. Crystal Palace have conceded 19 Premier League goals, more than anyone else. Of the 24 previous teams to let in 19 or more after eight games of a Premier League season, 14 went down. Roberto De Zerbi has never lost to them in four Premier League meetings as a manager.
And yet we have all watched this film before. Spurs get a big win, the sun comes out, everyone outside the ground is predicting 4-0, and five minutes in the visitors are ahead. We wrote earlier in the week that this is a bigger test than the Chelsea game, and the detail backs that up.
Tottenham vs Crystal Palace tactics: go after the wing-backs
Palace’s usual shape is a 3-4-3 with two narrow attackers behind Jean-Philippe Mateta, and Anan Khalaili and Tyrick Mitchell providing all the width. Without the ball it becomes a back five, and a very narrow one. The midfield box squeezes together, so De Zerbi’s favourite route through the middle will be harder to find than it was at Stamford Bridge.
That is why this game should be won out wide. Khalaili has huge stamina and he is good going forward, but he is not a strong one-on-one defender, and that is the battle Mathys Tel should be licking his lips about. We already said Tel has to start against Palace, and this match-up is another reason why.
Tel and Andrew Robertson doubled up well down the left at Chelsea. Do the same here and Palace have a problem, because neither wing-back looks able to handle Tel or Mohammed Kudus alone. Help has to come from a midfielder or a centre-back, and once a centre-back is dragged out, the gaps open up for Marmoush.
Spurs need to catch Palace in transition
Palace are at their most open when they are changing shape. On the ball they spread very wide, off it they tuck in, and they have been slow to get back into position in the wide areas. Win it and go direct, and they will struggle.
This suits Spurs. Since De Zerbi’s first Premier League game in charge, only three teams have forced more high turnovers than Tottenham’s 120. Palace are trying to play out and be more expansive than the side we knew, and that makes them very gettable from the press.
Why Tottenham vs Crystal Palace is still a banana skin
The first worry is Mateta. He is one of the few strikers in the league who can play up top alone, either with his back to goal or in behind, and he will give Micky van de Ven and Jan Paul van Hecke a real physical battle.
The second is the question of who tracks the wing-backs. Ask Kudus to chase Mitchell all the way back and you lose him where you want him, up the pitch. Ask the full-backs to do it and you leave space for Palace’s two attackers to drop into, where they could outnumber Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali.
The third is that Palace may not turn up in that shape at all. They went to a deeper 5-3-2 in the Carabao Cup at Fulham and won 1-0, with a manager under pressure looking for anything that works. De Zerbi’s staff will have seen it, so it should not be a shock, but a low block would ask a very different question.
And then there is history. Palace have won three of their last four Premier League games against Spurs, and they have won their last two league visits here, after Spurs had won nine straight home league games against them between 2015 and 2024.
An early goal changes the whole of Tottenham vs Crystal Palace
Here is the stat we keep coming back to. Six of Tottenham’s eight Premier League goals this season have come in the final 15 minutes, the joint most of any side, and the average minute of their goals is the 74th, the latest in the division.
That has to change. Palace’s defence has been all over the place whenever it has been asked real questions, and an early goal would force them out of any low block. Get them on the ropes in the first half and they could crumble.
Verdict: no excuses for Spurs against Palace
Spurs last won three league games in a row in February 2025, and the last two wins are only one fewer than they managed in the previous 26. So the prize here is bigger than three points. It is the moment a team stops hoping to win and starts expecting to, with Leeds up next.
We would take an ugly win over a pretty draw. And there is even a daft record on offer: the last side to win three straight league games against teams starting with the same letter were Burnley in March and April 2018, and Coventry, Chelsea and Crystal Palace would make it three Cs. We say Spurs win 2-0, with control rather than chaos. Anything less, and the doubts about Chelsea start to creep back in.
