Palace and Eze so dominant in 'cup-final preparations' derby

There'll be blue skies over.... Picture by @YTJourno

Tottenham Hotspur (0) 0

Crystal Palace (1) 2 Eze 45, 48

If Eberechi Eze can conjure up a performance half as glorious as this one, Man City had better watch out in next Saturday's FA Cup final.

The silky Eagles midfielder glided through this one-sided contest with total mastery and netted either side of half time to give Oliver Glasner's team ideal momentum ahead of the Wembley showpiece to come.

By contrast, Spurs look way off being the happy bunch they should be after securing a Europa League final date with Man United in 10 days' time. Given they are one place above the relegation zone, perhaps we should not be surprised by the ragged, hangdog appearance.

Sorry Spurs - resting a raft of their bigger names, including their central defensive pairing of Christian Romero and Micky van De Ven as well as Dominic Solanke and Guglielmo Vicario - were abject and fell to an extraordinary ninth home defeat of the season in the Premier League.

Almost from the word go, we could all see the way this one was likely to go. Spurs were lucky to earn a reprieve after being caught napping in the eighth minute - Eze spread the ball out to Daniel Munoz and Ismailia Sarr put away the low cross only for VAR to flag up a very marginal offside.

The Eagles may have been denied then but they continued to show the greater enterprise and appetite. Munoz overlapped to crash a shot against the top of the crossbar. Then the Colombian spurned a golden opening by trying to find Jean-Philippe Mateta instead of shooting.

Next, Hughes and Mateta combined to free Sarr, whose effort was deflected over the bar and Mateta went close to converting a Jefferson Lerma pass, while Eze's shot from outside the box drifted just wide after touching a Spurs player.

Palace also had a second goal ruled out when Marc Guehi accidentally handled a goalbound header from Lacroix at a corner.

Justice was finally done - albeit after another VAR check - after Eze turned in a cross from Munoz, who darted past Rodrigo Bentacur - Jed Spence once again nowhere to be seen down that troublesome Spurs left flank.

We had barely restartedthe second half before Eze's supreme calmness carved out an opening that he himself finished. He laid a sumptuous ball out wide for Sarr to burst onto and raced on to meet the cut back return ball with another simple finish. He made it look so easy.

Tails up, Mateta was soon charging down on goal and forcing stand-in stopper Antonin Kinsky into a hurried save before the game settled into a holding pattern of Palace being left untroubled in possession. Eddie Nketiah came on and missed the chance to make it 3-0, finishing tamely with a shot straight at Kinsky in a one v one.

For Spurs, this game seemed more about avoiding injuries than anything else, with Bilbao only 10 days away. To that end, Ange Postecoglou could have done without Dejan Kulusevski picking up a knock on his knee which forced him to depart with the game in its early stages.

He walked off after briefly trying to continue following a midfield collision and their hope will be that the Swede coming off was just a precaution.

Mathys Tel was also in the wars after two clashes that left him in a heap on the turf - Maxence Lacroix and Will Hughes getting stuck in on the striker. Spurs simply did not seem to share Palace's stomach for the fight.

Spurs: (4-3-3) Kinsky - Porro (Son 58), Danso, Davies, Spence - Sarr, Bentancur (Bissouma h/t), Gray - Kulusevski (Moore 19), Tel, Odobert

Eagles: (3-4-2-1) Henderson - Richards, Lacroix, Guehi - Munoz, Hughes (Devenny 86), Lerma (Kamada 60), Mitchell (Chilwell 60) - Sarr (Esse 78), Eze - Mateta (Nketiah 90)

Attendance: 60,254