Tottenham Hotspur endured a miserable afternoon at Crystal Palace – hardly the ideal start for new signing Emerson Royal.
Tottenham made the trip to Selhurst Park in search of a fourth win in a row having made a great start to life under Nuno Espirito Santo.
Yet with so many players missing, Tottenham fell flat in South London.
A disappointing first-half performance saw Tottenham offer virtually no creativity.
When Japhet Tanganga picked up a red card in the second half, Tottenham folded like a house of cards.
Wilfried Zaha opened the scoring from the penalty spot before Odsonne Edouard stole the show. The Frenchman scored twice off the bench on his Palace debut.
That was a much better debut than Emerson had, as the Brazilian was immediately thrown in at right back by Nuno.
Emerson makes his Tottenham debut
There was some good with Emerson on his Tottenham debut. He recorded eight clearances, three tackles, one interception and one header won.
His battle with Zaha was box office viewing. The pair were going at each other throughout the game, and Zaha will feel that he won the fight.
During the game, pundit Jermaine Jenas – a former Tottenham player – offered his view on Emerson.
Jenas told BT Sport (26min) that you could easily tell that Emerson didn’t want to give Zaha any room.
Jenas called Emerson ‘aggressive’, and felt that his tactic to try and deal with Zaha – getting in
“He’s aggressive, Emerson Royal,” said Jenas. “You can tell he doesn’t want to give Wilfried Zaha any space to run into – that is how you deal with Wilf,” he added.
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