Match Report: Fairytale Return for Pardew as Palace Overcome Spurs
Having succeeded Neil Warnock as Crystal Palace boss, Alan Pardew's return to Selhurst Park was exactly the fairytale he would have wanted. The 53-year-old spent 4 years with the south London side as a player and managed to guide the Eagles to all 3 points against Tottenham Hotspur in his first league game at the Palace helm following a 4-0 thumping of Dover in the FA Cup the previous week.
Coming into the game, Palace had netted only 2 goals in their last 7 league games, though that could have changed had it not been for the heroics of Hugo Lloris. Glenn Murray was kept onside by Danny Rose, who switched off in the build up, but was unable to tuck under the onrushing Lloris. The chance came after Christian Eriksen was presented with the opportunity to put the away side in front after 20 minutes. Kyle Walker's low cross was cleared as far as Eriksen from 12 yards, only for the Dane to place his effort wide of Julian Speroni's post.
Spurs were the more dominant of the two sides in the first half and were duly rewarded for their efforts after the interval. Man of the moment Harry Kane was picked out by Nacer Chadli and the England hopeful was on hand to rifle a low drive into the bottom corner. The goal spurred Palace into action as they pressed for an equaliser, with Dwight Gayle presented with two chances to net, but he was twice denied by Lloris. However, Gayle made no mistake when offered with the chance to drag Palace level from the penalty spot, burying past Lloris after Benjamin Stambouli brought down Joe Ledley with a clumsy challenge.
The hosts used the momentum gained from Gayle's penalty to move in front in the 80th minute as Jason Puncheon found the bottom corner from 18 yards. Spurs pressed for a 2nd goal as the game neared the 90 minute mark, but could not haul themselves level as Mauricio Pochettino's side missed the chance to move into the top 4. Victory for the Eagles - their first in England's top tier since the 3-1 win over Liverpool in November - moved them out of the relegation zone and up to 15th.
A determining factor in the fixture was the absence of key players Mile Jedinak and Yannick Bolasie for Palace and Nabil Bentaleb for Spurs. The trio had all been selected to represent their countries for the upcoming African Cup of Nations tournament, presenting fringe players the opportunity to secure a regular starting berth for their respective sides. For Spurs, Stambouli put in an impressive shift prior to his reckless challenge to concede the penalty in the second half. No Spurs player made more tackles (5) in the fixture, though his decision to dive for the ball in the box ultimately helped Palace back into the game, which will have left Pochettino less than enthused.
Palace could have buckled without key duo Jedinak and Bolasie. However, Joe Ledley and James McArthur both put in superb performances in the absence of the former to earn respective WhoScored ratings of 7.50 and 7.56. No player made more interceptions of all Palace players than Ledley (2), while no player made more tackles than McArthur (7) in the fixture. Puncheon, meanwhile, turned out a superb attacking performance to ensure Palace did not miss Bolasie against Spurs.
Puncheon earned the WhoScored man of the match award with a rating of 8.59, with the 28-year-old playing more key passes (4) and completing more successful dribbles (4) than any other player in Palace's 2-1 win. The attacker made the headlines for all the wrong reasons at White Hart Lane last season, skying his first half penalty on the way to an eventual 2-0 loss, but atoned for his error with a splendid display at Selhurst Park. Wilfried Zaha also did his starting chances little harm with an effective display from the bench. In the 73rd minute, with Palace in the ascendency, Zaha was thrown into action at the expense of Murray, allowing Gayle to move into a central striking position. The on-loan wideman was a real handful for the Spurs defence, completing 2 successful dribbles and earning a WhoScored rating of 6.83 in his cameo appearance.
Pardew deserves credit for the way he altered the dynamic of the game with the introduction of Zaha late on, and the England hopeful certainly improved his chances of forcing his way into the starting XI on a weekly basis. "Wilfried (Zaha) came on and gave me exactly the reaction I wanted. I left him out (of the starting XI) as I wanted to see how he would react and that 20 minutes was electrifying," Pardew admitted in his post match press conference.
The win will only breed confidence moving forward. Palace may have been dubbed one of the favourites for relegation at the beginning of the season, but Pardew's start to life at Selhurst Park will boost morale for the second half of the campaign.
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