{"id":206160,"date":"2025-12-29T04:58:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T04:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/206160\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T04:58:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T04:58:06","slug":"c-palace-0-1-spurs-29-dec-2025-game-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/206160\/","title":{"rendered":"C Palace 0-1 Spurs (29 Dec, 2025) Game Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Archie Gray<\/a>‘s first goal for Tottenham<\/a> ensured they ended a rollercoaster 2025 with a 1-0 win at Crystal Palace<\/a> to ease the pressure on Thomas Frank.<\/p>\n

Spurs fans had started to turn on Frank after a run of five defeats in eight left them 14th in the Premier League<\/a> on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n

While there had been no suggestions internally that Frank’s job was under immediate threat, Tottenham needed to return to winning ways and Gray’s 42nd-minute header settled the contest between the current FA Cup and Europa League holders.<\/p>\n

It moved Spurs up to 11th but crucially they are only four points off fifth-placed Chelsea<\/a> ahead of Frank’s return to old club Brentford<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Oliver Glasner watched his weary Palace team lose a third consecutive league game to further highlight the need for January reinforcements.<\/p>\n

Both clubs had celebrated eagerly-awaited cup wins in May but Spurs were without one of their heroes from Bilbao with Cristian Romero<\/a> suspended.<\/p>\n

\"\"Archie Gray scored the only goal of the game as Tottenham beat Crystal Palace on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Kevin Danso<\/a> replaced Romero and received a late Christmas present in the shape of a yellow card from referee Jarred Gillett after five minutes as Palace made the early running.<\/p>\n

Chances remained limited, though, and Tottenham thought they had taken the lead in the 17th minute through Richarlison<\/a> only for their celebrations to be cut short after Lucas Bergvall<\/a> was deemed offside in the build-up.<\/p>\n

Jean-Philippe Mateta<\/a> signalled his intentions with an effort dragged wide from 20 yards soon after before a short free-kick routine created another chance for Palace’s number nine but he nodded over from Maxence Lacroix’s header.<\/p>\n

Justin Devenny<\/a> and Adam Wharton<\/a> tested Guglielmo Vicario<\/a> with tame efforts before Will Hughes<\/a> curled wide after a slick move by the hosts.<\/p>\n

It appeared a matter of time before Palace broke the deadlock but Spurs struck against the run of play in the 42nd minute.<\/p>\n

After Randal Kolo Muani’s blocked shot forced a corner, Pedro Porro’s delivery to the back post was kept alive by Kolo Muani and then flicked on by Richarlison for Gray to head home from close-range to open his account for Tottenham.<\/p>\n

Spurs’ slender half-time lead was immediately under threat as stand-in away captain Micky van de Ven<\/a> blocked Yeremy Pino’s volley before an even better opportunity was created.<\/p>\n

Pino produced a sumptuous outside-of-the-boot cross which was knocked down by Nathaniel Clyne<\/a> but Devenny fired over on the turn.<\/p>\n

Glasner turned to his bench with Eddie Nketiah<\/a> introduced and another Palace chance was squandered with 20 minutes left when Jefferson Lerma<\/a> teed up Lacroix but he sent his header wide.<\/p>\n

Five minutes later and Tottenham had the ball in the net again through Richarlison after a wonderful Mohammed Kudus<\/a> cross only for VAR to deny the visitors again as the Brazil<\/a> forward was marginally offside.<\/p>\n

Palace captain Marc Gu\u00e9hi<\/a> went close next after he headed over but no grand finale occurred as Spurs defended resolutely, with substitute Wilson Odobert<\/a> unlucky to hit the inside of the post from range before Dean Henderson<\/a> denied Rodrigo Bentancur<\/a> as it finished 1-0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Archie Gray‘s first goal for Tottenham ensured they ended a rollercoaster 2025 with a 1-0 win at Crystal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-206160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}