How Crystal Palace showed Liverpool the way to take the fight to Jose Mourinho’s Spurs

Tottenham’s approach has helped fuel their Premier League title charge, but Roy Hodgson’s quiet observation enabled Palace to stunt their best chance at success

Jose Mourinho offered praise to Crystal Palace’s approach in the draw with his Tottenham side (PA)

Since victory in the north London derby a couple of Saturdays ago, a lot was made of Tottenham Hotspur and their style of play.

Nevermind the 2-0 scoreline, comprehensive in its ease, the real chewing was done over the display. Two expertly taken counter-attack goals in the first-half, no chances created or risks taken in the second. All that was missing was Jose riding around in a sports car with buck teeth and exaggerated ears to hammer home just how much this was a Mourinho caricature performance.

Jamie Redknapp set the agenda for this discussion during that second half when he questioned whether the players actually enjoyed doing what they were doing (winning and being top of the league). In his Sunday Times column yesterday, Graeme Souness wondered if winning a first league title since 1961 playing in this manner would make it mean less (it won't). In the week between the takes of Redknapp and Souness were similar back-and-forths over Twitter and substantial meals. Some even among Spurs fans.

Amid all the talk, Roy Hodgson kept schtum and prepared his Crystal Palace side for the highly successful and overly-familiar threat. And in doing so was not only able to land a telling blow on Spurs, scoring past Hugo Lloris for the first time in five games, but outplayed the country's number one team for the majority of the 90 minutes AND came away with a point to show for it.

Spurs had the best of it at 0-0 and 1-1, but for the 58 minutes between Harry Kane's opener and Jeffery Schlupp's equaliser, Palace dominated in a manner their opponents could neither quell nor riff on.

READ MORE: Tottenham title assault handed setback by Palace

When the provisional front four of Schlupp, Christian Benteke, Wilfried Zaha and Eberechi Eze went forward, the rest arranged themselves to ensure they were not susceptible to a counter, even when chasing to go level. For the fifth time this season, Spurs made no fast breaks in the match. Only twice have they registered nothing in that column and emerged victorious, against bottom five sides in Brighton and West Bromwich Albion. Had Vincente Guaita not fallen for the first bit of swerve on a 30-yard effort, a subdued Kane might have left empty-handed.

"It was something we were concerned about," said Hodgson after the match, though not before thanking the journalist for noticing they had tempered their attacks throughout the game. "When you go a goal down against any team, the possibilities (of chasing the game and getting caught on the break) are something which bothers you. Particularly (against) a team like Tottenham.

"When we did lose the ball in our attacking moments, we didn't really offer them the clear counter-attacking possibilities which I am certain they were hoping for."

The real feather in the 73-year-old's cap, though, came when negotiating Spurs' low block, which has frustrated not just Arsenal but Chelsea and Manchester City. And Arsenal fans won't mind if nullifying the other two are held up as the real successes here, boasting enough lock-pickers, high-wire acts and smooth operators among them to stage a dozen Ocean's 11 remakes.

Rather than overcomplicating their approach, even with misdirection aplenty in Zaha and Eze, Palace decided to look up: over the heads of the muscle at the door in Pierre Emile-Hojberg and Moussa Sissoko who stop anything at ground level, and backed their own strong men to tussle beyond them.

Benteke was their primary operative, winning 14 of 21 aerial duels, most coming in a second half in which he trebled his touches in the box (six). He was aided in the area by Gary Cahill, James McArthur and Schlupp. Though it would be Schlupp who earned the glory of the goal, profiting off a spill from Lloris as the assault pushed both sets of players right on the Spurs goalkeeper, the mode, error and equaliser was a win for collective perseverance.

"I give credit to Palace for that," said Mourinho of his side's inability to hold firm. "I always say that even if you want to press high, if the ball is in the air you cannot press. There is nothing to press. So they put the ball in the air, they started putting the ball in the box and creating lateral free-kicks and corners and rebounds, so the goal could arrive like it did."

Harry Kane rarely looked like scoring outside of his impressive effort (AFP via Getty)

He even went further, praising Hodgson's charges with finding a solution to a problem that has stumped many.

"There are opponents when you can have a low block and be there for three hours, and they don't hurt you. There are other opponents like Crystal Palace when you have a low block, they put the giants in the box, they look for pressure, they look for second balls, they look for rebounds, they look for corners, they look for lateral free-kicks. And you cannot accept that."

Not for the first time, Palace under Hodgson has shown where and how success can be gained against high-achieving clubs. And yet again it has come through quiet observation.

Because the last month has been littered with breadcrumbs of a method to combat Spurs. Palace did as Chelsea did, ensuring they had cover when attacking and intercepting early in moves that could have caught them short, though were helped by some slack passing. They realised that if Pep Guardiola could not go through the middle then they had little chance, so set Zaha and Eze to do their work on the left and just left of centre to avoid the blockade. Even Arsenal, ridiculed for their 32 crosses from open play, were almost comically unlucky that not one ricocheted into the path of one of their own in a crowded penalty area. All this, especially the "second balls" and "rebounds", came good for Palace.

It could have been a very different story for Palace without Vicente Guaita’s heroics (EPA)

None of this is particularly ground-breaking, and it seems basic written out in one paragraph with the benefit of hindsight. And as such it's important not to overplay Sunday's result. Not only did Spurs not lose, they finished the final 10 minutes perplexed at the stunning efforts from Guaita to deny them a winner.

This was not a cracking of an uncrackable code, nor the crumbling of a methodology before our eyes. Hodgson is no super genius, Spurs have not been outed as pretenders and Mourinho is no fraud.

However, other teams will take after Palace because their tact here can be adopted and applied by most functional teams. Like, for example, second-place Liverpool, one of the best at hassling, crossing and loading the box from all angles, who are up next to untangle the league leaders' high speed, low block on Wednesday night.

Similarly, Spurs should heed what was done to them and work at reacting to it. To get really meta with their countering. Otherwise, the two points dropped here could lead to greater cost as the season wears on.