LONDON -- Tottenham eased the pressure on head coach Thomas Frank with a gritty 1-0 win over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Sunday.
The game began with Palace well on top until Richarlison thought he had opened the scoring after a quarter of an hour before it was ruled out for offside by VAR.
Palace continued to look much the sharper side throughout the first 45 before Archie Gray headed home against the run of play just before the break as Richarlison flicked on from a corner.
The Brazilian forward had the ball in the back of the net again with 15 minutes to go until VAR intervened for a second time showing a clear offside.
Despite the best efforts of a Selhurst Park crowd watching their side at home for the final time in a wildly successful 2025, Palace were unable to create a chance of note in the latter stages as the game drifted out for a rare Spurs away victory and clean sheet.
Frank buys more time in the hotseat
With just one win in his last eight league games, Thomas Frank was desperate for a positive result in south London and got just that.
In a scrappy affair where neither side really played free-flowing football -- the type of game that suits Frank's at times pragmatic style of play -- it was Spurs who came out on top.
He may count himself a beneficiary of Daniel Levy's exit from the club, the former Spurs boss would often prefer a trigger-happy-approach when it came to managers underperforming but the new regime under Peter Charrington and ENIC are so far sticking by the Dane's project.
"I know how to make a competitive team. We will make a very competitive team here, as well," Frank said ahead of this game. And an away win where Spurs found themselves on the back foot for large parts, showed that there may just be some fight left in a side that have struggled to win over their own fanbase this season.
Regardless of all the noise surrounding his job, a satisfying London derby win is exactly the type of result Frank needed to, just about, keep the faith going into 2026.
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- Premier League table
Underperforming Tottenham are overperforming in one stat
Tottenham's fight against the stats was evident once again at Selhurst Park as they outperformed their xG -- something that is by no means a one off for Frank's side.
Coming into this one, they sat 17th in the league's xG table but seventh for goals scored (26).
Stats are often overlooked in football when results are going your way, and they may well be after this one as Spurs secured all three points, but their wider' struggles this season are a perfect case study of how no team can outrun their underlying numbers.
They were evidently second best going forward against a Palace side struggling to keep up with their own xG, a stat from which they underperformed here. And while their inability to create consistent goalscoring chances can be attributed to missing the nous of Dominic Solanke, Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison, it cannot be used as an excuse for a side with a fit front three that many in the league would still envy.
It is an issue that will undoubtedly be high on Frank's fix list come the January transfer window and Spurs may well need some reinforcements if they don't want another Premier League campaign to pass them by.
Palace pay for profligacy
Oliver Glasner will be scratching his head at just how Crystal Palace weren't able to score against a Spurs side who, at times, looked ripe for the taking.
They had 13 attempts, six more than Spurs, and often found themselves with time and space going forward in another game that showed why they rank bottom of the league for chance conversion.
It was their fourth game in 10 days and Glasner has been vocal about his concerns over the schedule that has seen Jean Phillipe-Mateta play through pain and injuries to Chris Richards and Daniel Muñoz, who are both key to Palace's play.
The added element of Ismailla Sarr away at AFCON mean Palace were missing a player with six goals and one assist in all competitions this season. Nevertheless, they were unable to take a heap of first-half chances and now end 2025 with a performance that does not befit perhaps the greatest calendar year in the club's history.
Key stats
Archie Gray (19y 291d) is the youngest Englishman to score for Spurs in the Premier League since Dele Alli in January 2016 (19y 287d -- also v Crystal Palace)
With his assist, Richarlison reached 98 career goal contributions in the Premier League (71 goals, 27 assists)
Each of the last six Premier League goals that Crystal Palace have conceded have been from set pieces
Richarlison is the first player to have 2 goals overruled by VAR in the same Premier League game since... Richarlison on Dec. 6, 2021 with Everton against Arsenal (Everton won 2-1)
Crystal Palace have now lost 3 consecutive home Premier League games for the first time since October-December 2023 (4)
Crystal Palace recorded 15 shots without a single big chance, their most without a big chance in a Premier League match since October 2024 vs Nottingham Forest (20)
Information from ESPN's Global Sports Research contributed to this story