The first half has come to its natural conclusion in South London, with Spurs trailing to Palace 1-0 at the break.
A goal from Mateta has given the hosts a slender lead after an appalling forty-five minutes from Spurs’ perspective.
Spurs’ opponents are currently without a win in the Premier League this season, whereas Postecoglou’s men are in fine form, winning seven in eight in all competitions.
Tottenham will be desperate to extend that run today, but are without their captain Son Heung-Min, whose absence is seen as a precautionary measure. With Wilson Odobert deemed unfit, the chance of a first Premier League start has fallen to 17-year-old Mikey Moore, who will be keen to impress the masses.
Over the duration of the first half, we analysed each player’s individual performance, rating it on a scale of 1-10.
Tottenham half-time ratings vs Palace
Guglielmo Vicario: Didn’t look too comfortable with the ball at his feet and failed to preserve a clean sheet. 5.
Pedro Porro: Looked shaky early on and struggled under the Palace press. The Spaniard was also limited down the right flank and struggled to bomb forward like he usually does. 4.
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Cristian Romero: Struggled to settle on the ball; he looked spooked and shaky. Made some important interventions, but it wasn’t enough to stop Palace from scoring. Put VDV under pressure with a horrible pass across goal that led to the hosts scoring. 3.
Micky van de Ven: Similar to Romero, Micky appeared to struggle when playing out from the back. His error on the ball led to Mateta’s opener, but it came subject to a hospital pass from his defensive partner. 3.
Destiny Udogie: Tried to be positive on the ball but was almost non-existent. He was often out of position when he shouldn’t have been. 4.
Yves Bissouma: Battled hard as the lone defensive midfielder, but unsurprisingly, was incredibly overrun through no fault of his own. I’d expect a change in the midfield sooner rather than later. 6.
James Maddison: Struggled to create anything. Was denied by Henderson right before the half-time whistle but perhaps could’ve placed the shot better. 5.
Dejan Kulusevski: It was an unfamiliar performance from the Swede as he failed to get into the game at all. Picked up an unnecessary yellow card which just about summed up his first-half display. 4.
Brennan Johnson: Had one of Spurs’ two real chances of the first half as he hit the post with a shot he hardly knew about. Other than that, he wasn’t too impressive. 4.
Dominic Solanke: Leading the line today for Spurs, Solanke was hardly found by anyone in Lilywhite. He was unable to get on the ball much, which severely hindered Spurs’ end product. 4.