Voices on the game... Crystal Palace

It’s the final game of the season on Sunday and Jose Mourinho himself has labelled it as such, insisting it’s “a final that can give us Europe.” Ahead of the 4pm kick-off at Selhurst Park, where we’ll be bidding to leapfrog Wolves – who travel to Chelsea – and secure a Europa League qualification spot, we’ve rounded up what’s being said...

Dominic Fifield

Senior writer at The Athletic, Crystal Palace programme contributor, formerly of the Guardian and Observer

“Palace are on a dreadful run – seven losses on the bounce, the worst run of form that Roy Hodgson has ever overseen. It’s rather overshadowed the fact that they were safe when we went into lockdown, which with nine games to go is fairly unprecedented for Palace. At that point, certain people were talking about a possible late charge for Europe but as it’s turned out, the lack of options has cost them and they’ve fallen to pieces in the last seven games unfortunately. They’ve had a few performances which have deserved a bit more – they played well against Chelsea and Manchester United – but the calibre of opponents has punished them. In the games where they’d have expected to get points against Burnley and Aston Villa, they’ve really been off the pace and what had looked to be a very promising season is going to end up as a bit of a damp squib unfortunately.

“They’ve got a very good team that’s currently injured. It’s an old squad – I think it’s the oldest in the Premier League – and it’s only 21 senior players anyway, so it’s not built for what is effectively tournament football at the moment with nine games in six weeks. Tomkins, Cahill and Sakho are all very good centre-halves – all injured. Van Aanholt, their best left-back – injured. Benteke got himself a red card and misses the rest of the season so there’s no target man up top. Milivojevic, their captain, is a serious doubt for the weekend, he’s picked up a knee injury. They’ve too many players out and it leaves the team reliant upon Zaha and Ayew, who has done well this season but has looked tired recently, and Townsend as well, as a former Spurs player, but the reality is they’re so stretched and they’re having to cobble together a team to be ready for this last game. The end of the season cannot come soon enough for them.”

Roy Hodgson

Crystal Palace manager

“It is always good to end on a good and positive note. If I was hell bent on achieving that, I am not sure I would have chosen Tottenham as the opponent and chosen to play the game without five or six of our regular players. But I am certainly hoping we will do well and give a good performance and I know the players are desperate to give a good performance and get a result.

“There will be seven weeks before the season starts up again. Now that is a long period and in that time some of the players we are missing will reappear and we may have some new players coming into the club. We have already signed one, a very talented 19-year-old right-back in Nathan Ferguson, who we have been working on for some time. Already we have him coming into the squad and I am expecting there to be more. I am pretty certain the new season will start on a fresh note. I can’t deny when you finish the season on a negative note that it won’t bring a few problems or headaches, but none we can’t deal with.”

Jose Mourinho

Spurs Head Coach

“I never look to our opponents based on their run, I never to look to our opponents based on their position in the table, I look to our opponents by what they are in terms of their potential, their quality, their organisation. So, for me, Palace are a very good team that had a very good season with very good results, always competing, even against the top teams, getting results, or trying to get results or making it difficult for big opposition. They have a great coach with lots of experience, very good players, it’s the last match of the season – it’s going to be hard.”

Hugo Lloris

Spurs goalkeeper and captain

“The best way to prepare for next season is to finish this one as high as we can, to get Europa League for the confidence and to get another target for next season in this competition. Step by step, we try to get all the information from the manager and his staff, try to play the way he wants and then we cannot achieve things without the togetherness. It was one of our strengths in the past, we lost it a little this season and we can now feel it’s coming back. We'll try to finish the season positively, try to get Europa League and the chance to share again some emotion and some great European nights.”