Crystal Palace 2-1 Spurs: Pardew the Prem’s best manager at twirling defeat into victory

Analysis with Stats Zone

Crystal Palace gave Alan Pardew reason to dance at Selhurst Park, coming from behind against Spurs to win 2-1 and hand the former Newcastle manager his first Premier League game in charge of his new club.

The win was crucial, lifting Palace out of the relegation zone, and was even more impressive given Pardew was without two key players – Yannick Bolasie and Mile Jedinak, away on Africa Cup of Nations duty with DR Congo and at the Asian Cup with Australia respectively.

In-form striker Harry Kane opened the scoring after 49 minutes, and Spurs looked at that stage like carrying on the momentum from their superb 5-3 triumph over Chelsea on New Year’s Day. But Mauricio Pochettino’s team failed to see out the game, conceding a 69th-minute Dwight Gayle penalty after Benjamin Stambouli had rashly fouled Joe Ledley and a late winner from Jason Puncheon.

Pardew’s introduction of Wilfried Zaha was a big positive and the Manchester United loanee gave Kyle Walker a torrid time in the second half, helping set up Puncheon’s winner. A fervent Selhurst Park crowd was forced to endure six minutes of stoppage time before celebrating a great result that lifts their team out of the bottom three.

Analyse Crystal Palace 2-1 Tottenham using Stats Zone