By Paul Green at Selhurst Park
JEAN-PHILIPPE Mateta secured Crystal Palace a vital 1-0 over Spurs to lift them out of the relegation zone.
The Eagles went into the London derby still without a Premier League victory to their name, a run of form which had put manager Oliver Glasner under mounting pressure.
Mateta grabbed what proved to be the decisive strike in the 31st minute when he coolly slotted home from close range after Daniel Munoz’s cross was knocked on by Eberechi Eze into his path.
But other than a couple of fine stops by Dean Henderson to deny James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski either side of the break, Palace were rarely troubled by the north Londoners and deservedly claimed all three points.
Asked if the result had saved his job, Glasner replied: “I don’t think so. I always felt quite comfortable with my job.
“I’ve always been very close to my sporting director and to my chairman and so I wasn’t really concerned about my job.
“I think all our performances were OK but maybe we missed a little bit as a team what we showed today.
“We showed this courage, we showed the intensity, we showed the bravery how we pressed them, the intensity and maybe this was what a little bit what we were missing.
“Today all the credit to the players how they dealt with the situation because everyone was asked ‘no win, no win, no win’ and they stayed cool.
“They were in a good mood and we had a very good training week. That’s why we are all very happy with today.”
Eze and Mateta caused Spurs plenty of problems, not only with the goal which came after Spurs attempted to play their way out from the back.
The Palace boss said: “Of course they are important for us but I mention it every time, all of this season and last season.
“When we see the goal we scored, we press in their box and then our right-wing presses [Micky] van de Ven. This is courage, intensity and forced them into a mistake.”
Glasner added: “It was a team effort. When we work that hard as a team, when everybody does his job with this passion, this intensity usually the attackers get the reward because they are the guys who score.
“Also we had a clean sheet today. Dean Henderson made two great saves.”
It was a busy afternoon for Eze, who saw a goal struck out for offside and then had a penalty claim ignored.
Glasner said: “We were a little bit unlucky when that goal was disallowed because it was a few inches offside.
“I think it was a penalty because Eberechi was free to take the finish. If he has a finish inside the box, he takes it. Why should he lay down in this situation?”
