Our 3️⃣ points after Spurs go five clear at the top of the Premier League | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur beat Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Friday night to move five points clear at the top of the Premier League.

Here is what we made of it.

In safe hands

Tottenham fans will be going to bed happy tonight, and so they should.

Their team are five points clear at the top of the table (for around 18 hours at least), and they were witness to an exquisite move for Son Heung-min’s goal. But things could’ve been very different tonight if it hadn’t been for Guglielmo Vicario.

The Spurs goalkeeper was on hand to produce a sublime one-handed save to keep out a well-hit effort from Odsonne Edouard in the sixth minute when the ball looked certain to hit the back of the net.

It was almost a carbon copy of his fine stop to deny João Palhinha’s header at 0-0 in the win over Fulham on Monday.

Vicario proved the value of having a top-quality shot-stopper by ensuring his side didn’t fall behind in the last two games, and who knows what would’ve happened if he didn’t?

The Italian’s save ratio of 79.5% is the best in the Premier League while he also ranks 2nd in expected goals on target prevented (11).

That €19m they paid Empoli is looking like a steal.

Spurs sit five points clear – early days but these are the games that can formulate a title challenge.

Are Spurs title challengers?

Is it time to start taking Ange Postecoglou’s side seriously?

Go on, you can admit it Spurs fans, (and non-Spurs fans), that when Ayew pulled one back for Palace in the 94th-minute that the word ‘Spursy’ was flowing around your mind.

Somehow, in a game they controlled from minute 50 to minute 94, that they were going to find a way to come escape the jaws of victory with a defeat.

But they held out, and the 10-game unbeaten run continues.

The passing of this test hints that this Tottenham group are a grown-up team. For over an hour they failed to muster up a shot on target as Roy Hodgson’s men closed off all passing lanes and protected their 18-yard-box with their lives.

It looked as if it was building up to be a frustrating night for the visitors from north London, and these Spurs fans have seen this game play out ten times over, either ending in a draw or a narrow loss.

The story was different tonight, as it was against Sheffield United recently, as it was in coming back to earn a draw against Arsenal, as it was in beating Manchester United at the start of this journey.

Perhaps Postecoglou is re-writing what it means to be ‘Spursy’.

There will be questions and doubts.

How will they cope when Yves Bissouma and Pape Sarr go to the African Cup of Nations? Are they going to keep struggling against low-blocks? They also face Chelsea, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Newcastle in their next six fixtures.

But for now Tottenham fans have every right to enjoy this moment and dream about where it might take them.

That’s what football is all about.

Raiding the Palace

We have to dedicate this final point to that Spurs second goal because, well, wow.

In a match low on pure quality and more prone to displays of dogged defensive-work, Spurs lit up the already floodlit Selhurst Park with one of the best team goals we’ll see this season.

Pedro Porro escaped a high Palace press by sweeping the ball out to Bissouma who hit a long, cross-field pass that deserves to be viewed from multiple angles before some neat interchange from James Maddison and Brennan Johnson laid it on a plate for Son Heung-min to poke home.

Absolute magic. An example of the type of goals this Spurs team can score nowadays. Pure, unadulterated team moves.