Spurs took the lead, then Van de Ven’s sending off with a penalty converted by Sarr (double) turned the match around. Tudor have just one point over third-last Forest and West Ham
A good part of the 60,213 spectators announced at the Tottenham Stadium already left after yet another horrible first half. Those who remained whistle as soon as the match ends. Spurs have just lost 3-1 to Crystal Palace, yet another low point, weighed down by the dismissal of captain Micky Van de Ven, in what is becoming a psychodrama, one in which Tottenham are in real danger of relegation. The margin on third-last place has been reduced to just one point after this new disaster with the Eagles: it is the third defeat out of three with Igor Tudor on the bench, the fifth in a row, the eleventh championship match without success. It’s so bad that in 2026 Tottenham still haven’t won in the Premier League. It’s so bad that relegation is a real specter, one to be exorcised in the last 9 days of the Premier League. And to think that Tottenham will play the round of 16 of the Champions League next week against Atletico Madrid after finishing the group in 4th place. Incredible, seeing how adrift the team is, torn to pieces by Crystal Palace, booed by their own fans outside the pitch.
abyss
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Even Wolverhampton, last in the table, long condemned to relegation, have done better than Tottenham in the Premier League since the calendar says 2026. Having kicked out Thomas Frank three games ago, probably months late for a manager taken from Brentford and who never seemed to have the right mentality for a big club, hasn’t changed things much. Igor Tudor, chosen among the general surprise, entered the Spurs with a straight leg as he entered last season at Juve and the previous one at Lazio, but not even his brisk and straight to the point ways were able to shake up a team adrift, one that on the pitch seems to have long lost the path to respectability. The talent would also be there, despite the impressive chain of injuries that have been reducing the available players for some time, but it is never seen on the pitch in the Premier League, replaced by a jumble of errors that erase the few good things. Take the match against Palace, for example: four minutes after Dominic Solanke’s opening goal, Van de Ven catches Ismaila Sarr in the area, free after a defensive error, and gets a red card for denying a clear scoring opportunity. The Dutchman is by far the most talented player in this squad without a real star, but he too, like Guglielmo Vicario and the few others who should be certainties, ends up getting caught up in the general greyness.
With ten men, Spurs were subjected to Palace’s initiatives, conceding the 1-2 goal in the 1st minute of added time in the first half. Mathys Tel makes a risky pass on the edge of his own area, allowing Adam Wharton to feed Jorgen Strand Larsen. The Norwegian international scores between Vicario’s legs from close range. The hat trick also arrived in the seventh of injury time, with a brace from Sarr. The Spurs motto is “To dare is to do”, to do you have to dare, but no one seems to want to dare. So much so that after the defeat against Fulham Tudor pressed on similar keys to those that Antonio Conte and Ange Postecoglou had touched before him, those of a club where doing the minimum is enough. Except that this group isn’t succeeding even in the slightest.
crisis
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It is one of the main reasons for the crisis, one of the reasons why everyone is looking at the direct clash on March 22nd at home against Nottingham Forest rather than Atletico and Tottenham, one not to be missed to be sure of keeping at least one other team behind in the standings, in addition to the almost doomed Wolverhampton and Burnley. Being in second place in the Forbes ranking of the most profitable football teams of 2026, with a valuation of 2.84 billion euros, or having the most beautiful stadium in the Premier League, alone will not be enough to avoid Tottenham the nightmare of the first relegation since 1977. And Tudor’s charisma, already in question after the third defeat out of three, risks not being enough either. The whistles, a mixture of fear and disappointment, from the fans who remained until the end against Palace will not be enough. To save themselves, Tottenham must start winning again, believing in themselves, daring. This is precisely what this team that will play in the Champions League round of 16 next week stopped doing a long time ago.
trust
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Tudor, on the other hand, hasn’t stopped believing in it. “It may sound strange saying it now, but after this match I believe in it more than I did before – he said in the press room -. I saw something in this team: I have to choose the right players, because the boat is going in the direction that I want and in which it must go. Whoever is in the boat and rows in the right direction can stay, the others can also abandon the ship. When we recover some injured players, by choosing the right players, I am sure that we will have a good team and we will win again. It is not easy to accept this moment, where we are, but that’s how it is and the only thing we can do is stay calm and work. There are still 9 games to go, which is quite a lot.” Tudor shrugs his shoulders when they ask him in the conference if he fears being sacked, but he reiterates that he remains positive, that he has finally seen something in his Spurs, even if this is the third defeat in three games of his management. “It’s a moment in which we pay for every mistake, even if perhaps red cannot be called that – he explains -. I can’t say anything to the players after this match. And I see them in training, I know that they care: we have to stay calm and work. The situation will change.” With Tottenham one point from the abyss, having just been defeated at home by Palace, it is difficult to believe them.
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