The foe you know - Palace's Andros Townsend

Continuing our feature entitled ‘The foe you know’, where we look at former Spurs players who now represent this week's opponents. Today, Andros Townsend is in the spotlight.

We'll find ourselves up against another of our Academy products on Sunday with Andros Townsend very much a regular figure in the Crystal Palace side at present.

Born in Walthamstow, the fast-moving winger had a total of nine loan spells away from the club after coming up through our youth ranks. He initially stepped up for his senior Spurs debut in January, 2011, scoring in a 3-0 FA Cup win over Charlton Athletic at White Hart Lane, and made a handful of appearances in the Europa League, interspersed with further time out at other clubs honing his craft.

After spending the second half of the 2012-13 campaign on loan at Queens Park Rangers, he hit the ground running with us at the start of 2013-14, scoring the opener away at Dinamo Tbilisi in his first appearance of the campaign in August and remaining a regular part of the squad going forward. He also exploded onto the senior international stage with England around that time, scoring a long-range goal on his debut against Montenegro in a World Cup qualifier in October, 2013. Roy Hodgson, who gave him his Three Lions debut, is now his manager at Selhurst Park.

Able to operate down both flanks and using his trickery to beat players, Andros enjoyed some memorable moments with us in 2014-15 and became a reliable penalty-taker, scoring from the spot in our 5-3 home win over Chelsea on New Year's Day, 2015, and doing likewise in the first leg of our League Cup semi-final opposite Sheffield United – a tie we ultimately came through to reach the final at Wembley. Andros started that showpiece match against Chelsea and, three days later, scored a fantastic goal at home to Swansea City in the Premier League, running almost the full length of the pitch down the left flank before cutting in and firing home.

Unable to hold down a regular place in our side in the opening months of 2015-16, Andros played a few games for our Under-21s before being sold to Newcastle United in January, 2016. However, following the Magpies' relegation at the end of that campaign, he transferred to Crystal Palace.

He's scored three goals for the Eagles to date, all of which came last season, while he's started all but one of Palace's Premier League matches thus far in 2017-18. We look forward to renewing acquaintances with Andros at Wembley Stadium, connected by EE, on Sunday.