0-2 v Crystal Palace - 11 May 2025 - Home

Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou said he was disappointed that his fringe players failed to take their chance as Spurs suffered a record 20th defeat of the Premier League season in the derby against Crystal Palace.

Postecoglou made eight changes to his side with one eye on the Europa League final, but Eberechi Eze scored both goals as Palace warmed up for next Saturday's FA Cup final against Manchester City with a 2-0 win.

He said there was no "compelling evidence" to suggest those who played against Palace were challenging for a place in the starting line-up for 21 May's Europa League final against Manchester United.

"[They] had an opportunity to put their name forward and put some pressure on the guys who played [in Thursday's 2-0 win against Bodo/Glimt in the semi-final second leg]," he said.

"Fair to say there wasn't any compelling evidence of that.

"That's what I'm trying to push with these guys, that sometimes in football, you've just got to take the opportunities there before you. I'm disappointed more didn't step forward."

Eze put 12th-placed Palace ahead at the end of a one-sided first half before he sealed the win for Oliver Glasner's side soon after restart.

The Eagles equalled their Premier League record tally of 49 points, first set during the 1992-93 season and matched in the 2018-19 and 2023-24 campaigns, while Spurs are now 17th - with only relegated Ipswich Town, Leicester City and Southampton below them.

With an all-English Europa League final against United in 10 days' time, all Postecoglou could have wished for from this fixture would have been to go through it without losing any of his players.

But it took fewer than 20 minutes for the home side to add to their list of injuries when Dejan Kulusevski, one of the three to keep their places from the midweek game in Norway, disappeared down the tunnel with a knee injury in his 50th appearance of the season.

Postecoglou said the Spurs "medical team are not too concerned with him", adding: "It's more of a knock than anything else, so we're hoping he should be OK.

"It's not helpful when you lose another player, it's the fine line we're trying to navigate at the moment.

"That aside, it was a disappointing performance and nowhere near the level it should be."

The Spurs boss has recently had James Maddison join Lucas Bergvall and Radu Dragusin among players missing the final weeks of the season.

Tottenham last lost 20 league games in a season in 1991-92 - a campaign in which they would lose a record 25 games in all competitions. They have lost 24 this season so far.

The Spurs boss said: "I get it and people are banging the drum about this record with defeats, but if people don't see there is a correlation between the two... it's not exactly Pythagoras theorem.

"It's quite simple to understand. We would have had much better results if we didn't have to navigate this. So, either you understand or you don't and beat us over the head, I get it."

Spurs will now face Aston Villa in a game that was brought forward to Friday to allow the north London outfit more time to prepare for the Europa League final.

And they will hope for a better result at Villa Park to build some momentum before a European final that could make or break their season.

While Spurs sunk to new lows on a bright and sunny day in north London, their neighbours Palace are now 90 minutes away from arguably the biggest result in the club's history.

The Eagles booked a first FA Cup final since 2016 by beating Aston Villa 3-0 in the semi-finals last month and they are hoping to lift the prestigious silverware for the first time when they meet Pep Guardiola's City in the capital on Saturday.

And a win against Tottenham was exactly what Glasner ordered as they ended a run of five league games without victory, right before the short hop to Wembley, with their first league double over Spurs.

Ismaila Sarr netted for Palace from Daniel Munoz's cross inside 10 minutes only for it to be chalked off for offside before right wing-back Munoz rattled the crossbar.

Palace's frustrations grew as Maxence Lacroix then had his header disallowed after it hit team-mate Marc Guehi's arm on its way in.

But Eze turned home a cross from Munoz at the stroke of half-time to make it 1-0 before the result was put beyond doubt only three minutes into the second half when Eze played Sarr through before side-footing the return pass into goal.

The result also saw them match their record points tally in the Premier League for the second season running and they will be confident of making it their best-ever campaign with games against Wolves and champions Liverpool still to go.

Those are clear signs of progress achieved under their Austrian manager Glasner, who joined from Eintracht Frankfurt last year, but a crucial summer awaits.

The Palace boss has been linked with a return to Bundesliga with RB Leipzig.

Last summer saw attacker Michael Olise leave to join Bayern Munich while Sunday's two-goal hero Eze, captain Guehi, top scorer Jean-Philippe Mateta and midfielder Adam Wharton, who missed out because of an injury here, will all be in demand this time around.

It will be interesting to see who they manage to hold on to, but first, they will hope to write some history together come Saturday.