Sun 13 December 2020, 17:17
Tottenham HotspurJose Mourinho described always being ‘on the edge’ at 1-0 up at Selhurst Park, and so it proved as it finished 1-1 against Palace in the Premier League on Sunday.
We took the lead via Harry Kane’s 30-yarder in an impressive first half display where home goalkeeper Vicente Guaita also kept out Tanguy Ndombele, Harry again and then a double save from Tanguy and Steven Bergwijn.
Palace remained a threat, particularly from set pieces with Christian Benteke and Gary Cahill often winning the first header. Benteke had headed over and Jeffrey Schlupp missed the target from close range before they equalised on 81 minutes, Schlupp bundling home from Eberechi Eze’s free-kick.
We got back on the front foot for the final 10 minutes and Guaita came to Palace’s rescue again, first tipping over Eric Dier’s free-kick before blocking Kane’s close-range effort.
You need to kill the game, and if you don’t, you are always on the edge
Jose reflected: “I’ve come to this stadium so many times with other clubs and their style of play doesn’t change, that power, the physicality, the way they do it with set pieces, with long crosses, second balls. You need to kill the game, and if you don’t, you are always on the edge.
“At half-time, I could predict what would happen in the second half. I asked the players, ‘don’t accept the low block, don’t accept their dominance’ because in the end it would be a corner, a rebound, a second ball, and we had to not accept that situation.
“I want to believe that we didn’t do better because of Palace, because they pressed, and they didn’t let us have the ball the way we had it in the first half.
“I want to give them credit, because I believe the players wanted to do their best all the time, and they showed that in the last 10 minutes. It’s just a pity they didn’t score before they did, because that would have given us more time to change the result.”
