Sat 11 September 2021, 15:05
Tottenham HotspurNuno Espirito Santo felt there were ‘too many obstacles’ for the team to overcome as we slipped to a first defeat of the Premier League campaign at Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Nuno was forced into changes with Davinson Sanchez, Heung-Min Son and Steven Bergwijn all missing after the international break. All three started as we made it three wins out of three in the league last time out against Watford on 29 August.
A tough afternoon was on the cards anyway but compounded by the loss of Eric Dier to injury after just 12 minutes. Joe Rodon came back into the fold alongside Japhet Tanganga in central defence and we stood firm under pressure, the situation compounded further again when Japhet was sent off in the 58th minute for his second bookable offence.
Still we held firm, and it took a penalty awarded against Ben Davies almost 20 minutes later for handball to break us down - the first goal we’d conceded in the Premier League this term. Substitute Odsonne Eduard rubbed salt into the wounds with two late goals for the final 3-0 scoreline.
There were too many obstacles during the game, (we were) always trying to find solutions
“Tough day, tough day, we didn’t play a good game,” stated Nuno, honestly, at Selhurst Park. “We knew it was going to be tough , but we didn’t perform like we showed before, and, honestly, I believe we should do much better in all aspects of the game.
“There were too many obstacles during the game, always trying to find solutions, so it was tough day for the boys, and after having one man less, it becomes much harder, trying to look for a goal with one man less, the imbalance comes. We have to analyse, and we have a lot of work to do.”
It was put to Nuno that we still looked solid even at 10 against 11, until that penalty opened the door for the home side. He added: “We showed resilience when we were a man down, putting bodies in front of the ball, but then came the penalty.
“We didn’t create enough, we didn’t have the ball enough, we made mistakes... there are a lot of things we have to work on.”
As for Eric, Nuno told us: “Let’s wait and see. It was a tough blow. He’s in pain but hopefully it's not going to be very serious, hopefully."
