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2023/24 English Premier League
Matchday 10

Crystal Palace v Tottenham Hotspur

Selhurst Park
London, England
Friday, 27 October 2023
Kick-off is at 21h00 
 
Tottenham have a chance to go five points clear of the chasing pack before anyone else plays when they take on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Friday, October 27.
 
Spurs reclaimed top spot after they beat Fulham 2-0 in another London derby at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on October 23 to open up a two-point gap to Manchester City.
 
Arsenal dropped down to third following a 2-2 draw with Chelsea two days earlier and trail their fierce North London rivals by two points, with the Citizens moving above them courtesy of a 2-1 victory over Brighton.
 
Liverpool closed within a point of the Gunners in fourth place with a 2-0 win against neighbours Everton in the 243rd Merseyside derby.
  
The Eagles saw a three-game unbeaten run come to an end as they went down 4-0 to Newcastle to suffer their biggest defeat of the season.
 
Roy Hodgson's side had only lost twice in their previous eight encounters and they've been pushed out of the top 10 by the Blues and Manchester United, who edged Sheffield United 2-1 at Bramall Lane.
 
Hodgson has some defensive concerns to address after the Magpies ran them ragged at the back. Marc Guehi in particular had a poor game and his mistake led to Sean Longstaff scoring a crucial third goal on the stroke of half-time. The centre-back had been part of the defence that had shipped just seven goals from eight games prior to the trip to St James' Park, which at that stage was the joint-best record in the league.

Image copyright: Getty Images

 
Son Heung-Min starred in the win over the Cottagers, opening the scoring with a clinical finish on 36 minutes before setting up James Maddison to bag his first goal for Spurs in the 54th minute. The South Korean has led the line impressively for Ange Postecoglou's side following the departure of Harry Kane, scoring seven goals in nine top-flight appearances.
 
Hodgson acknowledged the performance on Tyneside was well below the required standard and felt his players made far too mistakes which proved costly.
 
"To come here and lose is one thing, but it's hard to accept coming and losing as comprehensively as we have done today, and with a few players who are going to be looking tomorrow morning, assessing their performances and coming up probably with the same conclusion I've come up with: we just weren't anywhere near good enough," he said.
 
"We made mistakes of course. Several of the goals and chances were uncharacteristic mistakes which the defenders and midfielders haven't been making. That's one thing, but you never know what it is in a game that causes you to collapse a little bit in terms of what we've been privileged to see from this team."
 
Postecoglou hailed a hard-working performance from his team against their London rivals, although he wasn't happy with certain aspects of their game and feels there are areas where they can still improve.
 
"It was a good win, the boys worked hard, our work without the ball was again outstanding, as it has been all year, and that's what won us the game," he told SPURSPLAY.
 
"In the first half we were good, we had to be patient, Fulham were well organised so we had to bide our time a bit, probably could have scored a couple more goals with the chances we created and put the game to bed.
 
"In the second half, we were just really wasteful with the ball, really poor, as poor as we've been all year to be honest. Vic was outstanding in a couple of moments to keep a clean sheet for us. We'll take the win, it's another good win for us, but plenty to learn.
 
"There are always areas to improve, and we will. In the second half I felt we took a few liberties with our football that we haven't so far, we've been really disciplined in our approach."
 

Head-to-Head (Last Five Premier League Meetings)

Matches - 5
Palace - 1
Tottenham - 4
Draws - 0
 

Premier League Matchday 10 fixtures:

Friday, October 27
 
21h00: Crystal Palace v Tottenham Hotspur
 
Saturday, October 28
 
13h30: Chelsea v Brentford
 
16h00: Bournemouth v Burnley
 
16h00: Arsenal v Sheffield United
 
18h30: Wolverhampton Wanderers v Newcastle United
 
Sunday, October 29
 
15h00: West Ham United v Everton
 
16h00: Aston Villa v Luton Town
 
16h00: Brighton & Hove Albion v Fulham
 
16h00: Liverpool v Nottingham Forest
 
17h30: Manchester United v Manchester City

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