Tottenham will play London rivals Crystal Palace away on Friday night in 21 CET. Game will come 4 days after previous against Fulham. Clubs face this match in different mood. Spurs won Fulham and played really good, while Palace lost against Newcastle away 4:0. Home side will want to redeem for very bad performance upon the Tyne.
North London club is big favorite in this match, but there are few cavets. Apart from being nervous after heavy defeat opponent will probably retreat in low block and their field is of smaller size and it will be good test if we can break low block on such pitch. "Eagles" have couple of key players from midfield and attack injured (Eze, Olise), but despite recent heavy loss their defense is rock solid. Joachim Andersen is very good defender. They will probably search for chance on counter attacks or from set pieces.
Good thing for Tottenham is that Sarr is not injured but just tired and subbed off vs Fulham because of that. Bad is that Udogie is under question mark for tomorrow. Another good news is fact that Bentancur had few more training seasons and is closer to return now. He scored very effective two touch goal from 16-18 meters during shooting practice on training. Gil also looked like very good shooter in that video clip I saw.
I expect same squad like against Fulham except Bissouma might play. It's big dilemma because he is on 4 yellow cards and one new he could get vs Palace could mean he is not playing next game against Chelsea. That would be big loss for bigger London derby. It will be interesting to see what will Ange do here. Johnson is also an option for this game. If Destiny can't play we'll see Royal or Davies in that role which is scary.
Yes we are first on the table, but we were that in the end of November or beginning of December under Jose Mourinho and then we draw 1:1 vs Palace away and everything felt a part after that. I still have nightmares of Lloris deflecting ball he should catch during that game and about Dier's crossbar near the end! Other time we lost 3:0 there after our player got sent off. Let's prevent anything similar from happening tomorrow.
As always I put a lot of hopes in Madders and hope he will do some of his magic and dribble inside the box and then find out someone to score goal. One goal could open them and things should be easier after. I might be to optimistic, but I expect 2 or 3:0 win on Friday in case we move properly on the pitch and pass fast balls between eachother. If we go out walking and slow passing we're looking for trouble. Let's not look for trouble! It's important to win everywhere we can and Friday is very good opportunity! COYS!
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