Glasner gloom grows, as pressure eases on Frank ahead of first return to Brentford

Crystal Palace (0) 0 v Tottenham Hotspur (1) 1

Premier League

Matchweek 18

Talking Points

By Kaz Mochlinski at Selhurst Park

“S**t happened again.” The articulate and eloquent Crystal Palace manager, Oliver Glasner, could not have expressed in any better phrasing the frustration felt by his team after yet another narrow and probably undeserved defeat against Tottenham Hotspur.

It was an inauspicious result to end the best ever year for the club, with a first major prize in Palace’s history when winning the FA Cup, then the addition of the FA Community Shield, plus a debut European participation.

The Eagles will hope in the New Year to emulate Spurs’ victory in Europe by reaching for the Conference League title, 12 months after the North Londoners secured the Europa League to conclude their own wait for a trophy.

However, it has by no means all been straightforward for the two cross-city rivals, with Palace losing their biggest star in Eberechi Eze to Arsenal, and Tottenham changing head coaches - as well as failing to sign Eze themselves.

After their big finals in 2025, a routine encounter with December drawing to a close should not have been overly engaging, but both sides had some post-Christmas recovering to do, due to relatively poor runs of form.

Spurs had registered only one win in their preceding seven matches in the Premier League, and they had not managed a victory of any sort in an away game since October, at Everton, nine weeks ago.

By contrast, Palace’s last four wins had all come on the road, with no successes at Selhurst Park in their past four appearances at home, having most recently collected three points on their own pitch at the very beginning of November against Brentford.

The two opposing figures in the technical areas had both been a bit battered with doubts over their futures, as Glasner’s contract expires at the conclusion of the season, while the Tottenham head coach, Thomas Frank, fights to win over the club’s fans.

Glasner’s gloom grew as the one-goal loss to Spurs made Palace’s present Premier League sequence the worst under his management. For Frank, the win restored Tottenham as the leading away team in the top flight this season.

Their 17 points from nine matches is primarily down to the good results they obtained on their travels early on in the season, but at Selhurst Park Spurs showed once again that they are capable of grinding out positive performances.

“I really liked the desire, details, mentality in the team” said Frank afterwards. “And the character and resilience of the team is something I spoke about a lot. That is so important that we have that resilience in the team.

“Because, in a long Premier League season, you need to go to a very difficult away ground here, and fight, and show character, get a clean sheet, win 1-0. That was a massive win in many ways.

“Was it a top performance? No. Are there things we can improve? Yes. But to go here, with the season having been a little bit up and down, I think it’s a huge mentality effort from the players.

“And I think we played extremely disciplined throughout the game. For example, one of Palace’s main strengths is transitions, and we really closed them down, something we worked very, very hard on. Big discipline in the team, and we need to do that.”

Frank went on: “I just think, for any team, it’s also the expectation ‘where are we right now?’ I think that resilience - and the mentality to show that and win 1-0 - is hugely important. On a day where maybe is not free-floating and everything.”

And he added: “I think the players really understood what type of game we were facing today. I think the discipline in defending was relentless, for instance not giving stupid counter-attacks away.

“Not trying to come here and just completely dominating, when we are where we are. Where we are is not at the top of where we want to be in terms of performance-wise, which we are working on.

“And then put the effort and the character and defending side of the game into it. That gave us a 1-0 win today. There have been other very good away wins where we have been more dominant. But, to do that, I think it’s a huge quality.

“Then, when we get the home form even better, it will be very good.”

Victory at the Palace might prove to huge for the Hotspur, as the pressure eases just a little bit from Frank’s shoulders, ahead of his first return to Brentford, from where he left in the summer to make the move to Tottenham.