Crystal Palace v Spurs – history, stats and facts

On Sunday afternoon, we return to Premier League action as we visit Crystal Palace (2.15pm kick-off).

Ahead of the meeting at Selhurst Park, we take a look at the history of the fixture, some of its recent key moments and the statistics behind both sides’ seasons so far, as well as the pre-match view from our opposition.

The history

We last met Crystal Palace in the final Premier League game of the 2019/20 season in a clash that, for us, had a lot riding on it. Palace came into the meeting back in July sat in 14^th and were safe in the knowledge that they couldn’t finish any lower than that while only with a win could they rise any higher in the standings, but only to 13th. We, however, were in the hunt for a European place and needed a result in south London to secure one.

Going into the game, Wolves sat a point ahead of us in sixth and we knew that we needed to better their final result of the season to qualify for a season of European football once again. The West Midlands outfit ultimately fell to a 2-0 defeat away to Chelsea that day meaning we required just a point against Palace to finish sixth, and that is exactly what we got. Harry Kane had opened the scoring in SE25 on 13 minutes, but Palace pegged us back on 53 minutes through Jeffery Schlupp as we earned a 1-1 draw.

Despite it proving to be an important point for us in the scheme of the campaign, the failure to beat Palace could actually be seen as a blot on our copybook, if our Premier League record against the Eagles is anything to go by. That July draw was the first time in five years that we had dropped a single point against Crystal Palace in the competition – we had won all of our last nine league meetings with them before that game.

Meanwhile, Schlupp’s equaliser was the first goal we had conceded against Palace in the competition in over four years – we had gone over 680 minutes of football against the men in red and blue without conceding, including seven consecutive clean sheets. We have managed 11 shutouts in the last 14 meetings between the sides.

To date, we have lost just three of our 22 Premier League meetings with Palace and conceded just 13 times while we also hold a strong record on our trips to Selhurst Park. In 10 visits to SE25 in the reformed top flight, we have taken maximum points seven times, and that is more victories than we have in home meetings with the Eagles (six).

Our biggest-ever Premier League win at Selhurst Park is 3-1 and that is a result we have managed on three visits. Firstly, on our first trip there in the competition in 1993, an Andy Gray strike and a Teddy Sheringham double sealed the points before goals from Nicola Berti, Chris Armstrong and Jurgen Klinsmann helped us repeat the scoreline five years later. Our latest such result came in 2016 with goals from Harry Kane, Dele and Nacer Chadli.

Heung-Min is our top goalscorer against Crystal Palace in our current squad having scored five times in his six Premier League starts against them. Harry Kane is our next highest scorer in the league against the Eagles - all four of his goals in the fixture have come at Selhurst Park.

Last five meetings

26 July, 2020 – Crystal Palace 1-1 Spurs – Premier League
14 September, 2019 – Spurs 4-0 Crystal Palace – Premier League
3 April, 2019 – Spurs 2-0 Crystal Palace – Premier League
27 January, 2019 – Crystal Palace 2-0 Spurs – FA Cup
10 November, 2018 – Crystal Palace 0-1 Spurs – Premier League

‘They are a team that can threaten in many situations’

Crystal Palace come into Sunday's encounter sitting 11^th, comfortable in mid-table and just three points off the European places. They have won three out of their last six, losing the other three.

Yet, throughout 2020, the Eagles have only managed four league victories at Selhurst Park and have suffered defeat in seven of 14 such matches. Two of their 2020 triumphs in SE25 have come this season though – an opening day 1-0 victory over Southampton back in September, before an impressive 4-1 triumph over Leeds United at the start of November.

Palace have failed to score in just five of their last 18 home games while in just 11 games so far this season, they have already scored 17 goals. Winger Wilfried Zaha has scored seven of those and has been directly involved in six goals in his last five games – a talented player whose threat, like the rest of the footballing world, Jose Mourinho is well aware of.

“I know many things about Crystal Palace and one of those things of course is the quality of Zaha,” Jose explained. “The players, the manager, the coaching staff is pretty much the same as the previous season – we know them very, very well. We know how difficult it was for us to get a point there to qualify for the Europa League in the last match of last season and for sure, on Sunday, they are going to try and win the match like they always do.

“Palace defend, but Palace also attack. I can say that yes, they defend, they defend with a lot of people and experienced people, but they have quality in attack, an organised attack, the counter-attack and set pieces. They are a team that can threaten in many situations. The game is going to be difficult.”

Sunday, of course, is another capital clash for us and in these such games, Jose’s record is certainly strong. Having taken charge of 63 Premier League London derbies in his career so far, our Head Coach has won 64 per cent of those (40 victories) which is the best return of any of the 17 managers to have taken charge of at least 20 of such fixtures.

Meanwhile, as a team, we could equal a decade-old record of our own. Not since the 2009/10 season have we kept five clean sheets on the trot in the Premier League but, having kept four in a row ahead of this weekend’s clash at Selhurst Park, we could match our record in the Premier League for consecutive shutouts with another clean sheet in SE25. If we finish the game without conceding, it will also be four consecutive Premier League away clean sheets for us for the first time since January, 2005, and only the third time we have managed that feat in the last 28 years.

Meanwhile, Heung-Min Son and Harry Kane are also edging towards their own record this season. So far, the pair have combined for 11 goals in the league and, in an entire campaign, only two other duos have combined for more goals in Premier League history ­- Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton (13 in 1994/95) and Ryan Fraser and Callum Wilson (12 in 2018/19). Palace boss Roy Hodgson believes that it will be ‘very difficult’ for his side to limit Harry and Sonny's opportunities in front of goal on Sunday.

“There's no point in building people up in particular before a game,” Hodgson explained. “The fact is that we can't persuade the players it will be very easy to play against Son and Kane because they've shown at the start of the season how dangerous they are and they're very difficult to stop from scoring goals. They're constantly on the lookout for runs behind the defence or opportunities to score goals.

“It's a team effort, really. You try and encourage the team to believe that if we are organised and work together as a team, which we try to do, we will limit the chances these players perhaps get during the course of a game. But it's going to be very difficult to limit them to no chances. When you're talking about the level of player that you're talking about now, they don't need many chances, and often one or two chances a game is enough for them to score goals.”