Tottenham Hotspur edged past rock-bottom Crystal Palace at Wembley without several injured first-team regulars.
It hardly reached the heights of the Real Madrid victory, but Tottenham Hotspur’s narrow win over Crystal Palace on Sunday was a good result considering the spate of injuries that has hit them this week.
Hugo Lloris and Michel Vorm both missed the 1-0 success, meaning there was a debut in goal for Paulo Gazzaniga.
Toby Alderweireld, Dele Alli and long-term absentees Victor Wanyama and Erik Lamela were also sidelined.
Gazzaniga overcame a nervy start at Wembley to put in a man-of-the-match performance. While Spurs would be anxious of facing a long run without Lloris, the Argentine deputised excellently on this occasion.
Jan Vertonghen and Eric Dier were among Tottenham’s other top performers, proving that there is enough depth in defence to cope without the ever reliable Alderweireld, and Alli’s replacement Son Heung-min scored the winner.
The injured player that Spurs missed the most was Wanyama, as a lack of protection from midfield led to the defence being overworked against a Palace side whose attack has mustered only four goals in 11 league games.
Too frequently, Wilfried Zaha and Andros Townsend broke on Tottenham’s defence and the presence of the Kenyan international in front of the back three would have cut out most of those counter-attacks at source.
Wanyama has not played for Spurs since August because of a troublesome ankle problem.
Thankfully for Spurs, his absence yesterday was not costly, but that he left a bigger hole than Alli, Alderweireld or Lloris just goes to show how important a player he will be for Mauricio Pochettino on his return.
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