Palace v Spurs - Mauricio's preview

Mauricio Pochettino would accept another late show at Crystal Palace – as long as maximum points come back to north London this weekend.

We’ve made a habit of leaving it late at Selhurst Park in recent seasons, needing plenty of time to break down the Eagles’ stubborn defence, but ultimately our persistence has always won out.

Dele Alli’s wonder-goal and an even later strike from Nacer Chadli secured a 3-1 victory in 2016, Christian Eriksen pinged home a 78th-minute winner from 35 yards the following year and then we went even closer to the wire last term with Harry Kane’s header two minutes from time securing a second consecutive 1-0 victory.

For Mauricio, the timing of the goals isn’t the be-all and end-all – he’s just interested in making sure we secure another victory at Palace on Saturday (5.30pm) in a bid to keep us in contention in the upper reaches of the Premier League standings going into the international break.

“I hope that it happens again and that we win again because the three points will be so important,” he told Spurs TV. “Always to get a victory is so important but of course it will be tough. We hope to win, that is the most important thing in the end in football – to play well and deserve it.”

Asked why we’ve had to wait for late winners at Palace in the last few seasons, the manager explained: “Football is like this. Sometimes it’s difficult to find the reason why it happens in different stadiums or against different teams.

“It’s difficult to find the reason – the only reason is that always you never give up and you push hard to try to achieve all that you want and to win the game. The principle is that always you go forward thinking that it’s possible to win – that mentality is something we need to keep in our identity.”

Palace’s set-up

Roy Hodgson’s side are without a win in six Premier League games, losing four of their last five.

They went down 3-1 at Chelsea last Sunday, but Mauricio says their results don’t tell the full story of how the men from south London have been playing.

“When you watch the games, they were always close, they played well and they were very well-organised,” he said.

“It’s a team that is very tough to play against and of course at Palace it will be a tough game. It’s difficult because they will be so motivated to stop that run (of disappointing results) but for us it’s so important to win and be in a good position in the table.”