There has been an awful lot of hyperbole about the Spurs vs Crystal Palace fixture on Thursday, 5 March, 2026. After the results the night before, a lot of it is warranted. As regular readers know, this site is almost entirely focussed on Tottenham Hotspur Women. However, it’s hard to look away from the disaster unfolding on the men’s side of the club.
After an apocalyptically bad performance against Fulham, Tottenham go into this match a solitary point behind Nottm Forest and West Ham. It’s a dire situation. The players look bereft not just of confidence, but of any idea how to win a football match – a point rightly made on the latest View From the Lane podcast.
The host of the episode, Jack Pitt-Brooke, also made the point that actually it’s the players that need to get their hands dirty. They must sort this out.
Right again.
Throughout the season, we’ve talked about Daniel Levy, ENIC, Johan Lange, Vinai Venkatesham, Thomas Frank/Igor Tudor… Everybody apart from the 11-15 men coming on to the pitch to actually play football.
It is shameful and upsetting that the club’s hierarchy have not only failed to capitalise on last season’s Europa League win, but sent the team and club backwards. The levels of incompetence are staggering. (Side point: It would be a grotesque irony that just as they have sorted out the women’s side, the collapse of the men means that has to be cut back.)
All of that is worthy of discussion and debate in the medium to long term. However, only the players can fix things in the immediate. Many of them don’t look like they understand, or care about, the situation they are in.
This is How Bad Spurs Are
Using Twelve Football’s Earpiece tool, I delved into how bad Spurs actually were against Fulham.
Let’s start with the “attack”. Tottenham Hotspur had one shot on target. That was Richarlison’s goal.
They had just 23 touches in Fulham’s box, converting this into just four high opportunity shots – that is shot by a team with an xG of higher than 0.15. Although all of those numbers are in and around the league average, the reality is that Igor Tudor’s team basically did not look like scoring.
Things are even worse defensively. Fulham were allowed to pass with relative freedom (opp pass intensity). Even with the likes of Joao Palhinha and Connor Gallagher in the side, Spurs won a below average number of duels.
This final chart demonstrate how easy the hosts found it to get into the final third, passing the ball through the Spurs lines:
It all makes for pretty grim reading and indicates poor coaching and setup. However, it also requires those on the pitch to step up and get control of the situation.
Leaders Needed
Where are the leaders? For all his drive and desire, Christian Romero’s ill discipline has let the team down. He misses Spurs vs Crystal Palace, serving the fourth and final game of his suspension. Micky Van de Ven is hopelessly out of form and looks utterly miserable. Guglielmo Vicario just flaps at everything or boots the ball out of play.
A win tonight will not guarantee anything. However, with trips to Anfield, Stamford Bridge and Elland Road to come, anything else is unthinkable.
Get behind the team and up the Spurs. There isn’t really any other choice.
How to Watch Spurs vs Crystal Palace
Spurs vs Crystal Palace takes place on Thursday, 5 March, 2026. It kicks off at 8pm GMT/3pm ET. You can watch it TNT Sports/Discovery+ in the UK and on USA Network in the US.
If you’re away, you can still access your usual services by using a VPN. I use NordVPN.