The Spurs Web

Tottenham Hotspur played out a 1-0 defeat away to Crystal Palace this afternoon in the Premier League, summing up their inconsistent form in the competition.

Let’s take a look at the five things we learned from the match:

Dr. Tottenham will see you now

It’s a real thing. We all know it’s a thing. Whenever a team is at their lowest point of the season, Tottenham can always be counted on to rock up and roll over. Crystal Palace were without a single win all season heading into the game today, but 1-0 actually flattered Spurs.

The Eagles were deserving of a 3-0 home win, with Eberechi Eze and Jean-Phillipe Mateta handing Romero and Van de Ven an early Halloween horror show. Why are Tottenham so easy to beat at times?

Tottenham’s away Premier League form

Believe it or not, Tottenham have won just three away games in the Premier League in 2024. We are at the end of October. People often look too much into statistics, but that is a worrying trend that cannot be ignored.

For whatever reason, whether it’s throwing away a 2-0 lead away to Brighton or rolling over for 90 minutes against Palace, Spurs are struggling to play away under Ange Postecoglou. With 19 away games per season, you aren’t going to achieve anything without being prolific on the road.

Micky needs to improve

Micky Van de Ven is the best defender in the league when it comes to chasing back towards his own goal. However, he needs to improve his one-v-one defending and his passing out from the back.

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When Tottenham are under pressure, the defenders need to be able to win more battles than they lose, while also using the ball to shift focus into attack. This is something Van de Ven has struggled with all season and today was no different.

Postecoglou changed formation!

Postecoglou has always backed his system and formation to the very end. Tottenham were so bad today, however, that he was forced to switch to a 4-4-2 for the final 30 minutes of the game, taking off his creators-in-chiefs (Maddison and Kulusevski) in the process.

Of course, it did little to improve Spurs, but it shows just how bewildered Ange was with his players’ performances today. Only Solanke and Vicario can honestly leave the pitch knowing they put in a decent shift.

Mikey Moore a silver lining

You have to feel for the 17-year-old today. That should have been a dream debut for Mikey Moore, but it was an absolute horror show from Tottenham. The winger had no room to express himself because the experienced stars around him didn’t show up.

I’m not saying that Moore had a superb game, but he didn’t really stand a chance of settling amid such a poor team performance. Hopefully, he will continue to get some starts even when Heung-min Son returns from injury because he deserves better.

Tottenham Hotspur’s shocking away form continues in the Premier League as they hand Crystal Palace their first victory of the season. The score ends 1-0 to the hosts at Selhurst Park.

Let’s take a look at how the individual players got on:

Tottenham player ratings

Guglielmo Vicario – 7 – Couldn’t do much about the Crystal Palace opener. Was put under pressure with some back passes and dealt with them well, albeit giving the ball away from time to time. Offside flag saved his blushes after he let Eze’s shot slip past his hand. Great save with his legs from a Sarr shot and again to tip Wharton’s shot around the post.

Pedro Porro – 4 – Really struggled to progress the ball down the right side today. The Palace press led to lots of blocked and intercepted passes. Porro swung in a couple of nice crosses but to no avail.

Cristian Romero – 3 – A poor match from Romero. At times, he looked like the Romero of old – erratic on the ball and constantly putting himself under pressure. Gave Van de Ven a horrid pass that eventually led to the Palace goal.

Micky Van de Ven – 3 – He really struggled to play out from the back and gave the ball away in the build-up to the opener. However, his one-v-one defending was arguably even worse – he had a nightmare afternoon up against Eze and Mateta. There were calls for a red card when he tripped Sarr but he got away with a yellow.

Destiny Udogie – 4 – Got forward a few times and made a nuisance of himself – could have grabbed an assist for Maddison’s nearly goal. At the back, he seemed flustered once again today and failed to track his man on multiple occasions.

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Yves Bissouma – 6 – Because of the packed and high-pressing Palace midfield, Bissouma had to get through the work of two players. In the end, he probably only managed the work of one-and-a-half, but that was more of a Tottenham problem than an Yves problem.

Dejan Kulusevski – 3 – Tottenham’s best player this season but this was his worst performance to date. Never quite got into the game, gave the ball away numerous times on the right, and looked a little toothless in attack. Not to mention his yellow card and a silly kick out that put him at risk. Taken off after just 60 minutes.

James Maddison – 4 – Couldn’t find a way into the game, even when he dropped deep. Gave the ball away a fair bit and got overwhelmed by the Palace midfield. He did, however, go close to scoring with a nice effort at the end of the first half. Taken off after just 60 minutes.

Brennan Johnson – 4 – Was barely in the match on that right side, beyond a Micky Van de Ven shot deflecting off him and onto the post. We didn’t see any of those trademark runs off the shoulder.

Dominic Solanke – 7 – Tottenham’s best player, although the bar was low. Fed off scraps all afternoon but managed to hold the ball up and bring others into play. Deserved so much better from his teammates today.

Mikey Moore – 5 – A real shame because this was a horrible Tottenham performance to come into. He showed some nice dribbling in flashes but it was such a scrappy game for the 17-year-old to try and compete in. Good experience for him nonetheless.

Substitutes:

Richarlison – 5 – Came on for the last 30 minutes but looks way off ideal sharpness.

Timo Werner – 5 – Put in a couple of nice crosses during his half-hour on the pitch, but some very sloppy moments at times too.

Pape Matar Sarr – 5 – At least added some legs in the midfield, but not his usual quality.

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.

Tottenham Hotspur have always acted rather shrewdly when it comes to securing lucrative sponsorship deals, but it seems the club may have missed a trick with their partnership with Nike.

Nike deal was great at the time for Spurs

Back in 2018, Spurs signed a 15-year deal with American sports brand Nike to be the main kit sponsor for the Lilywhites.

That deal was worth a reported £30m per year, meaning a total sum of £450m guaranteed for Tottenham over the course of the contract.

At the time, that agreement was in line with the biggest deals in the Premier League. It also came at a period of time when Spurs needed a strong revenue stream, with the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium being a significant financial burden.

Interestingly, Spurs also opted to keep their merchandising rights in-house while their rivals sold them off as part of their agreements, meaning the club could benefit from sales on their website and the club shop rather than relying on a cut of Nike’s sales.

The tide is turning for sponsorship deals

Tying themselves into such a long-term deal may not have been the right move, though, as the sponsorship market is changing right now, and Spurs risk being left behind.

With Liverpool agreeing to sign with Adidas from next season — a deal that will be worth at least £60m per year, and potentially up to £90m per year depending on certain incentives — the German brand is cornering the market among the Big Six in England.

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Arsenal and Manchester United are linked to Adidas, too, with £90m and £75m deals in place. Meanwhile, Manchester City’s collaboration with Puma is worth £65m.

Nike would be keen to offer more now

With only Spurs and Chelsea sticking with Nike from next season, it’s likely the brand would have been willing to offer considerably larger amounts to ensure they maintained those partnerships with two of the league’s biggest teams.

So, a sensible commitment from Spurs back in 2018 may now mean they are losing out on improved terms if they were able to renegotiate. Sadly, they’ll have to wait until 2033 to change their kit sponsor.

A former Tottenham man, who played 183 times for the North London club, reveals that he almost ended up joining Everton over Spurs.

One of Spurs’ Premier League greats

Kyle Walker will arguably go down as the best right-back that Tottenham have had in the Premier League era. Unless Pedro Porro can lift some trophies this season, of course.

He arrived at Spurs as a 19-year-old from Sheffield United and went on to evolve into one of the league’s best full-backs at White Hart Lane.

He was one of the very few Tottenham players who was part of both the Harry Redknapp and Mauricio Pochettino eras at Spurs, eventually moving to Manchester City in 2017 after eight years with the Lilywhites.

Kyle Walker makes transfer admission

The Manchester City star has now confessed that Everton were also keen on signing him from the Blades back in 2019 when David Moyes was in charge at Goodison Park.

The defender explained that he decided to move to Spurs as they showed they wanted him more than the Toffees.

He said on the You’ll Never Beat Kyle Walker podcast: “I was close to signing for Everton before I signed for Tottenham. Just to let you know,” Walker said.

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“Who was manager?”, Walker was asked, and he replied: “David Moyes.” The host then asked the right-back: “But didn’t Spurs sign both you and Naughton?”.

The City star responded: “Yeah, and Naughts went to his house. Naughts went to Moyes’ house and he never invited me. So I went down to Devon, to Tottenham and I was like okay they like me more, so I signed for Tottenham.”

Kyle Naughton was seen as the bigger coup

The irony of the double deal for Naughton and Walker was the fact that Naughton cost more and was seen as the much bigger coup among the two.

At the time, the feeling was that Walker had simply been thrown in as a sweetener, but he just exploded over the next couple of years.

It was clear from his loan spells at QPR and Aston Villa during the 2010-11 season that the Sheffield United academy graduate was going to be a special player for Spurs.

One Tottenham player is not completely out of the running for international selection yet despite not having represented his country since March of last year.

Tottenham man yet to repay Ange Postecoglou’s faith

Ange Postecoglou made the decision to re-sign Timo Werner on loan this summer on the back of his spell at Spurs in the second half of the season.

While the Australian has shown faith in the German with his team selections and by publicly backing him, the forward is yet to repay his manager’s faith.

He has once again been let down by some poor finishing this season and appears to be a long way away from forcing himself back into the German national team set-up.

Julian Nagelsmann’s message to Timo Werner

However, SportBILD now say that Nagelsmann has been in touch with the 28-year-old and has told him that his international career is far from over.

The German boss has allegedly informed the forward, who has 24 goals in 57 caps for his country, that he is under consideration for a recall.

The former Bayern and Leipzig boss is thought to have explained to Werner that if he ‘gets going’ at Tottenham, the door back into die Mannschaft remains open.

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Can Werner’s spell at Spurs end in January?

It is fair to say that a lot of Tottenham fans would not mind if the club decided to prematurely end Werner’s loan in January and replace the former Chelsea man with another wide player.

However, SportBild make it clear that no such termination is on the cards and that the player is expected to see out the remainder of the loan deal until next summer.

They add that if Spurs do not exercise the option to buy Werner next summer, Leipzig have to find a different buyer for him as his contract at the German club runs out in 2026.

Tottenham have been handed a boost in their reported pursuit of an attacker who is making waves in South American football with Boca Juniors.

Could Tottenham turn to the Argentine market again?

Spurs secured the services of one of the best young forwards in Argentine football last year, securing Alejo Veliz from Rosaria Central.

It now looks like the Lilywhites may be about to repeat the trick, with their eyes firmly set on Boca Juniors attacker Kevin Zenon.

Over the last few months, various outlets have revealed that Spurs are one of multiple English clubs eyeing a January move for the winger (Fichajes).

Boca may not be able to keep Kevin Zenon

The latest update on Zenon’s future has come from Pasion Futbol, who say that both Spurs and Newcastle are keen on securing the 23-year-old’s services.

The report states that the likes of Brighton & Hove Albion, Lyon, FC Porto and Napoli are also closely following the winger’s situation ahead of the winter transfer window.

The outlet adds that Boca are aware that it will be ‘difficult to retain’ the Argentina Under-23 international, whose release clause stands at $15m (£11.5m).

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Tottenham need a winger

Ange Postecoglou’s decision to permanently move Dejan Kulusevski to the number eight role means that he is now short of options in attack.

While Heung-min Son, Wilson Odobert and Timo Werner all prefer playing on the left, Spurs lack a natural backup to Brennan Johnson on the right wing.

However, the jury is out on whether Zenon is the one to solve that issue as the Argentine also prefers playing on the left wing.

Arsenal are looking to make changes off the field so they can catch up to Tottenham Hotspur in one key area.

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium superior to the Emirates

There is no doubt that Spurs now have the better stadium in North London, and arguably even across the whole of the Premier League.

Not only does everyone who visits the venue rave about the facilities at N17, but the stadium’s ability to host NFL matches and other high-profile events due to its retractable pitch, has significantly boosted Spurs’ revenue.

It has emerged that Arsenal are looking to catch up to their local rivals in that regard by making upgrades to the Emirates.

Arsenal’s plans for the Emirates Stadium

The Standard point out that the Gunners have made several renovations to their home since moving there in 2006, including roof repairs, installations of giant screens and improvements to the stadium’s exterior.

They are now thought to be exploring the possibility of upgrading and expanding the stadium’s capacity so that they can match Spurs’ in terms of matchday income.

Exploratory talks are now thought to be taking place on the matter as Arsenal asses what feasible steps they can take to do that.

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Revenue difference between Spurs and Arsenal

The Standard points out that the Gunners earned a matchday income of £102.6m last season while Tottenham earned £117.6m.

This difference is particularly stark when takes into account that the Gunners hosted more games than Spurs as they were in the Champions League while the Lilywhites did not have any European football.

The publication adds that Arsenal believe they would be better placed to compete with their rivals if they can upgrade the Emirates and are now speaking to Populous to improve their catering potential by upgrading some of the ground’s kitchen facilities.

Tottenham Hotspur have been informed that they will have to pay an eye-watering fee to sign an exciting young winger they are keen on.

English starlet dazzling in Germany

Borussia Dortmund’s Jamie Bynoe-Gittens is catching the eye of many clubs in the Premier League at the start of the season. It looks like he could be the latest English starlet to make a big-money move away from the Bundesliga giants.

A number of reports over the last week have revealed that the 20-year-old is on Tottenham’s radar ahead of the January window (The Mirror).

Football Insider even suggested a few days ago that the youngster is seen as a good fit for Ange Postecoglou’s project at N17.

Bild have now become the latest outlet to back up Spurs’ interest in the Dortmund man, claiming that the Lilywhites are keen on securing his services.

They claim that Tottenham’s biggest competitors for Bynoe-Gittens could be London rivals, Chelsea, with both clubs having sent scouts to watch the winger in action this season.

However, the publication adds that Dortmund have made it clear to these clubs that they would have to pay a whopping €100m (£83.4m) if they want to prise the former Man City youngster away from Westfalenstadion.

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Tottenham unlikely to enter bidding war

We know that Dortmund tend to drive a hard bargain and one would expect the German club to stick to their guns and demand a huge fee for Bynoe-Gittens.

While one can understand why Spurs see the winger as a good fit for their project, Postecoglou’s men are not going to get involved in a bidding war with Chelsea or other Premier League sides for the youngster.

Harry Redknapp has heard something interesting about the way Ange Postecoglou trains his Tottenham players at Hotspur Way.

Similarities between Harry Redknapp and Ange Postecoglou

While Redknapp and Postecoglou are very different personalities, there are some similarities in the way they coach – especially at Tottenham.

Just like Redknapp used to, the Australian also encourages his players to take the game to the opposition and play on the front foot.

The current Spurs head coach is also a no-nonsense character who trusts his senior players to run the dressing room, which is not too dissimilar to what Redknapp did during his time at White Hart Lane.

Redknapp makes Postecoglou coaching claim

If Redknapp’s latest assertion is to be believed, their similarities do not end there. The former Spurs manager revealed that Postecoglou is not really a training ground coach.

The 77-year-old claimed that he heard that the former Celtic boss does not get down and dirty with the players during the sessions at Hotspur Way.

Redknapp told talkSPORT (22/10, 9:23 am) about Postecoglou: “I like him. He is not a coach. He doesn’t do any coaching, they tell me. He isn’t out there, he doesn’t actually do any coaching. I don’t know if that’s right, that’s what I have heard.”

Postecoglou’s methods are an open secret

It is well documented that the Australian prefers to allow his staff to get the messages across to the players during sessions after briefing them beforehand so that he can watch everything closely.