Key events
“No soup content today! Palace v Spurs is on the TV, but I’ve got Southampton v Forest going on the computer,” emails Joe Pearson. “Never too early for a relegation six-pointer!”
My in-laws have departed so Romanian food is off the menu. Chicken salad with French dressing roday.
“A clear dearth of attacking options on the Spurs bench,” emails Mike Nagle. “What about Troy Parrott or Dane Scarlett? How about Conte giving them a chance and some encouragement or doesn’t he trust youngsters?”
They are both out on loan. Conte, however, rarely bloods youngsters.
Some pre-match Conte …
Palace are unchanged, meaning Tomkins is on the bench after returning from suspension. There is no Jack Butland in the squad either because he is, supposedly, on his way to Manchester United.
Oh Spurs.
Dier and Skipp come into the team for Spurs. Gil keeps his place following his first-ever Premier League start for the club against Villa.
Starting lineups
Crystal Palace (4-2-3-1): Guaita; Ward, Guehi, Andersen, Clyne; Schlupp, Doucoure; Olise, Eze, Zaha; Ayew.
Subs: Johnstone, Milivojevic, Tomkins, Mateta, Hughes, Edouard, Ebiowei, Richards, Riedewald.
Tottenham (3-4-3): Lloris; Dier, Romero, Lenglet; Doherty, Skipp, Hojbjerg, Perisic; Son, Kane, Gil
Subs: Forster, Sanchez, Royal, Sessegnon, Spence, Tanganga, Sarr, Davies, White.
Preamble
It is fair to say that Tottenham were ruddy awful in their defeat to Aston Villa at the weekend. They lacked any form of creativity and were easily broken down by Unai Emery’s men. Since then Antonio Conte has hinted he might leave the club, not for the first time, and bemoaned most things about the team.
Crystal Palace bounced back from their Boxing Day defeat at home to Fulham, which saw them finish with nine players, by downing Bournemouth on New Year’s Eve. Patrick Vieira’s side sit 11th in the table but the manager wants more and the way of getting that is by making some January signings. They could make themselves a more attractive prospect to potential signings by down Spurs tonight.
If Palace do win, who knows what will happen to Conte? The fans generally agree that the football is pretty awful, lacking anything in the way of threat. They have suffered injury problems in recent times but they should be really better than a side that has conceded the first goal in their past six matches.
It should be fun.
Kick-off: 8pm GMT
