LONDON (AP) — Son Heung-Min scored again as Tottenham beat Crystal Palace 2-1 on Friday to provisionally extend its lead in first place in the English Premier League to five points.
After a hesitant start, Tottenham took the lead in the 53rd minute when Palace defender Joel Ward sent James Maddison’s cross shot into his own goal. Son scored his eighth league goal of the season to ensure Tottenham were unbeaten in ten games.
Jordan Ayew pulled one back for Palace in stoppage time, but Tottenham were able to hold on to the lead during 11 minutes of stoppage time to move five points clear of Manchester City and Arsenal. City visits archrival Manchester United on Sunday, while Arsenal hosts bottom club Sheffield United on Saturday.
“Being leaders is great, so are the results, but the way we are doing it is even more so,” said Ange Postecoglou, who is in the running to be the coach with the best start to a season in the history of the English League. “Pretty much from the first game we had all kinds of different challenges that we had to overcome.”
Tottenham had no shots on goal in the first half despite having more than 70% ball possession, and it was through an own goal that the tie was broken.
Pape Sarr played the ball back to Maddison, whose cross shot bounced off Ward and into the Palace goal.
Postecoglou brought on winger Brennan Johnson in the 64th and it took him just two minutes to produce his first assist for the club since arriving from Nottingham Forest on the transfer deadline day.
The substitute started the play by giving the ball to Maddison, who returned the ball to Johnson, who intelligently managed to give the ball to Son in the area. The Spurs captain finished off a great shot inside the area in the 66th minute.
Postecoglou then sent out Uruguayan Rodrigo Bentancur, who made his first appearance since tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in February.
2023-10-28 03:42:25
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