Crystal Palace F.C.

Hayley Ladd wins Goal of the month for January

The manager reflect on tough loss to Spurs but promising 2025

The manager reflect on tough loss to Spurs but promising 2025

Factfile

Manager: Thomas Frank

League Position: 14th

Ground: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Founded: 1882

In their manager's words...

Thomas Frank was asked at his pre-match press conference whether he can take any comfort from the fact he led Brentford to a Premier League double over Palace last season.

The Dane responded: "It's two different teams. Sometimes teams suit each other in different ways, good or bad. I know we face a team that is very well organised.

"I know they are very good on the counters, I know they have such a threat going forward.

"It's a game where you need to be super concentrated throughout it so you don't give too much unnecessary transitions away for example or open space to defend."

When asked directly about the job Oliver Glasner was doing at Selhurst Park, Frank gave a typically graceful answer.

"I think Oliver has done a top job at Palace in many ways," he added. "They're really, really impressive.

"Clear identity of the team, they defend low, very compact, very difficult to break down, incredibly good on the counters - probably one of the best in the league.

"They are very good on set pieces as well, one of the best on corners, long throws, so, very strong on set pieces as well. Also, when they build, they have a clear identity with their 3-4-3 system. So, they've done a really good, impressive, job."

Tottenham Team News

Ahead of the trip to South London, Frank said he would have the same pool of players to pick from that was available to him for their last game against Liverpool, a 2-1 defeat last Saturday.

"Team news is the same as before the Liverpool game, so everyone who was available there is available for the Crystal Palace game," he explained.

"Both of them [Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski], are the same [stage of recovery] as I said before. I will be very happy when I can announce they are part of the squad, so that's where it is."

Their Season So Far...

Just where do you even begin with Tottenham Hotspur? In their final fixture of the calendar year, it’s difficult to pick out another club in England that can legitimately claim to have endured more of a roller coaster 12 months than Spurs.

Rewind to May and Ange Postecoglou had just led the club to a first major trophy in 17 years, defeating Manchester United in the Europa League final. It was a significant achievement but undermined by an appalling Premier League season that saw the Australian depart before the 2025/26.

Frank’s arrival in the managerial hotseat was considered a coup for the club, after the Dane had spent the last four years turning Brentford into a consistent Premier League club.

But Frank has endured a tricky first-half of the season in North London, despite initially overseeing a strong start.

A win in Manchester City in his first away game in charge made it seem that Spurs were top-four contenders once again.

But a 1-0 home defeat to Bournemouth in their next game was the first of five league defeats inside their first nine home fixtures.

Away from home though, Spurs have a better record. As well as the excellent win at the Etihad, they have also taken maximum points from trips to West Ham, Leeds United and Everton.

It's certainly a transitional phase for the Lilywhites, which was perhaps always inevitable after the departures of Chairman Daniel Levy and talismanic figure and former club captain Son Heung-min in the summer.

But in a congested Premier League table they will still have hopes of recovering to make a top-six finish. They also will be eyeing a deep run in the Champions League.

Spurs sit 11th in the league phase after the first six rounds of fixtures and are likely to at least qualify for the play-off stage, even if they miss out on the top eight and an automatic place in the last 16.

The Boss: Thomas Frank

Prior to joining in the summer, Frank was the third longest serving manager in the Premier League, having taken Brentford from the Championship and turned them into a solid top-flight outfit.

The Dane is used to English football, having first arrived in the capital over nine years ago as Brentford's assistant head coach in May 2016.

Taking over the top job in October 2018 Frank consistently outperformed expectations at the Gtech Stadium.

Appointed as Spurs First Team Head Coach on 12 June, Frank put pen to paper on a three-year deal with the club. He is Tottenham's Tottenham’s fourth permanent manager since June 2021.

Access All Over | Crystal Palace 1-0 Spurs

Access All Over | Crystal Palace 1-0 Spurs

Match Action

All Angles | JP's Fine First-Half Strike

All Angles | JP's Fine First-Half Strike

First-team

The Full 90: Crystal Palace v Tottenham Hotspur | Palace TV+

Extended Highlights: Crystal Palace 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur | Palace TV+

Mateta discusses winning goal

Mateta discusses winning goal

First-team

Post-match press conference: Tottenham Hotspur (H)

Post-match press conference: Tottenham Hotspur (H)

First-team

Extended Highlights: Tottenham Hotspur 0-2 Crystal Palace | Palace TV+

The Full 90: Tottenham Hotspur v Crystal Palace | Palace TV+

The Full 90: Tottenham Hotspur v Crystal Palace | Palace TV+

Full Match Replays

Post Match Press conference: Tottenham Hotspur (A)

Post Match Press conference: Tottenham Hotspur (A)

Press Conferences

Ebere Eze talks through dominant display

Ebere Eze talks through dominant display

First-team

Pre-match Press Conference | Tottenham Hotspur (H)  Crystal Palace F.C.

Wembley ready

Momentum was the order of the day in Palace’s last Premier League match before their FA Cup Final at Wembley.

A performance of style and attacking verve certainly generated just that: Palace recorded 23 shots (10 on target); accrued an xG total of 3.83 (to the hosts’ 0.80); and put the ball in the net four times (with two disallowed efforts); proving wholly dominant in North London. The perfect preparation.

History made

Not only was Sunday’s win our first away at Tottenham since November 1997, and our first-ever at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – the Eagles had lost on all seven of our previous visits, scoring just twice in that time – but it also saw us write more statistical history for the club.

Indeed, in what is the 25th different season in which we’ve met Tottenham in league competition, this was our first-ever double over the North Londoners.

What’s more, the win meant that Palace have now won both home and away against every Premier League side to have established their place in the top league since our return in 2013.

Record almost achieved

Sunday’s three points took Palace onto 49 for the season – with two matches yet to play.

Breaking the 50-point barrier would be another historic achievement for the club, as 49 represents our joint-best, achieved previously on three occasions: 2023/24 (last season), 2018/19 and 1992/93 (the latter being a 42-game season in which Palace were relegated).

History would beckon with at least a draw against either Wolverhampton Wanderers (at home) or Liverpool (away).

And, yes, if you were counting – that result does assure of at least a 12th-placed finish, while the possibility is still there for the Eagles to finish as high as eighth after their two remaining matches.

E-berilliant Eze

Tenuous nomenclature puns aside, the England international’s brace also saw him score for three consecutive league games for the first time in his career, and record his 10th goal involvement (seven goals, three assists) in his last 10 appearances in all competitions – which have all fallen following his first goal for England back in March.

On his own personal form, he said: “It’s been a weird season, but [I] gradually got there. [I’m] gradually getting some rhythm and playing how I want to be playing, helping the team as much as I can. It's a good time right now.”

Fun in the sun

Manager Oliver Glasner said it all in his post-match interview: “I really hope that all our fans had sun protection today, because they were the whole time in the sun, and it was really warm in the sun!

“It’s our fans, we can always count on them. I think they can count on the team that they always have 100 per cent effort. Great connection, great game for them, and I think everybody who is close to Crystal Palace is now looking forward to Wembley.”

Asked whether he would approach the week like any other, the manager explained: “Yes, we will meet tomorrow [Monday]. The players who started [against Spurs] will recover, the others will have a good and intense session.

“Then there will be Tuesday off. The players deserve to recover, and, of course, the staff have already started to prepare. We will watch a few Man City clips as well, and Wednesday will be the start with the preparation for Man City.

“But we can't do something different. It also makes no sense [to do that]. It's [about] showing what we can [do], who we are on our best level, and this is how we will enter the final, and then let's see. Then, it's football and everything can happen.

“But the worst thing that we could do is now changing many things, because we can't teach the players something different in four days – it would just make them dizzy! So, business as usual.”

Drawing parallels with the Eagles’ semi-final win over Aston Villa, which came just three days after an eye-catching result against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, Glasner named a strong side to face Spurs on Sunday, making just two changes to his starting line-up ahead of the match.

His players responded with a comprehensive performance to produce a first-ever league double over their North London rivals.

Glasner noted: “Yeah, the performance was really good. The many chances we created was really good. The clean sheet was really good – so many positive things to take for the FA Cup Final.

“We were talking about it before, and this was mentioned at the pre-match press conference, that the best preparation is showing a good performance here. The plenty of chances we created, the goals we scored, the consistency in our defending, because this is what we will talk about on Wednesday, this will help us for the Final – not just the result.

“We talked about it, and it's easy to talk about it. It's more difficult to execute it in the way the players did, so that's why I said all the credit to them – and it was really a nice Sunday afternoon.

“They [the players] stay in the rhythm. That's the most important thing.

“I think it's more risky and more dangerous to not to play players from last Monday [against Nottingham Forest] until next Saturday [versus Man City]. And 12 days without the game, just the training rhythm with a few days off…. we all know this – every football player knows – you get all the fitness, all the confidence, all the tactics you get in the games.

“So that's why it was never to think about if we’d do it in a different way. And this is what we did at Arsenal as well: we made three subs after 60 minutes. We had to do one more, one different one, because Jeff Lerma felt a little bit of pain in his ankle at half-time – otherwise Will Hughes should have gone off – so this was a slight adjustment.

“But everything else worked how we wanted to prepare.”

Fliss reflects on the last match of her career

Smerud reflects on last game of the season

Fliss reflects on the last match of her career

Smerud reflects on last game of the season