Tottenham Hotspur beat 10-man Crystal Palace 2-0 in the Premier League at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, October 31, with Archie Gray and Jan Paul van Hecke scoring to extend the home side’s winning run. The result gave Spurs three wins in a row for the first time since February 2025, and lifted them into the top half of the table, up to eighth place on 12 points.
Crystal Palace played most of the match with 10 men after Jean-Philippe Mateta was sent off in the 13th minute, and the visitors spent the afternoon defending deep inside their own half. Tottenham finished with 34 shots to Palace’s two, a measure of how one-sided the contest became after the early red card.
Key Takeaways
- Tottenham beat Crystal Palace 2-0 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on October 31, with goals from Archie Gray and Jan Paul van Hecke.
- Crystal Palace played most of the match with 10 men after Jean-Philippe Mateta was sent off in the 13th minute for a studs-up tackle on Micky van de Ven.
- The win was Tottenham’s third in a row, their first such run since February 2025, and moved Spurs up to eighth in the Premier League on 12 points.
Red Card Changes the Game Early
The match turned in the 13th minute. Mateta caught Micky van de Ven with a studs-up tackle on the Achilles, and the referee showed the Palace striker a red card. Palace had barely settled into the game, and from that moment the pattern was set: Tottenham with the ball, Palace defending in numbers.
At half-time the numbers told the story. Tottenham had 78 percent of the possession, had taken eight shots to Palace’s one, and had completed 386 passes to Palace’s 94. Palace, to their credit, defended bravely, packing seven, eight and sometimes nine outfield players inside their own penalty area, but the pressure kept building.
Gray Heads Spurs in Front
The breakthrough came in the 25th minute. Mohammed Kudus delivered a looping corner kick to the back post, and Archie Gray was left unmarked inside the box to head Tottenham in front. No Palace defender got close to Gray as the ball travelled all the way to him, and the finish gave Spurs a lead their dominance had deserved.
Gray was replaced at the start of the second half by Pedro Porro, with Tottenham head coach Roberto De Zerbi turning to his attacking right-back to help break down Palace’s deep defensive shape. Whether Gray had picked up a knock late in the first half or the change was purely tactical, the substitution underlined the home side’s intent to keep pushing for a second goal.
It was not part of any game plan, and it was not even intentional, but it counted, and it ended the contest as a spectacle.
Van Hecke Bundles Home the Second
The second goal arrived in the 73rd minute, and it was anything but pretty. Jan Paul van Hecke rose high to meet a cross from Mateus Fernandes, but Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson got two hands to the header and pushed it onto the crossbar. As the ball came back down, it hit Van Hecke on the head while he was sitting on the ground, and it went in.
It was not part of any game plan, and it was not even intentional, but it counted, and it ended the contest as a spectacle. Palace had defended valiantly until the final whistle, but with a man fewer and a two-goal deficit, there was no way back.
- Mateta sent off in the 13th minute for a studs-up tackle on Micky van de Ven
- Archie Gray headed Tottenham in front in the 25th minute from a Mohammed Kudus corner
- Jan Paul van Hecke scored the second in the 73rd minute after Dean Henderson pushed his first header onto the crossbar
- Tottenham had 34 shots to Crystal Palace’s two and 78 percent of the possession in the first half
- Spurs moved up to eighth in the Premier League on 12 points; Palace slipped to 18th on seven points
- 18-year-old Luca Williams-Barnett made his Premier League debut in the 88th minute
A Debut to Remember for Williams-Barnett
There was a late bright spot for the home crowd in the 88th minute, when 18-year-old Luca Williams-Barnett made his Premier League debut. The youngster, who has excelled for Spurs’ under-21 team, immediately drove forward down the left wing after a long diagonal ball found him, and in stoppage time he beat his man twice before setting up Kudus, who put the chance wide.
On the evidence of his first few minutes at senior level, Williams-Barnett looks ready for more opportunities in the coming weeks, adding another dribbling winger to a Spurs squad that is suddenly full of attacking options.
The Revival Under De Zerbi
The wider story is the revival under Roberto De Zerbi. Spurs started the season without a win in their first six games and without a goal in their first four, but three straight wins have transformed the mood around the club. The energy inside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, flat for so long, is electric again, and the players look like a side rowing in the same direction.
For Crystal Palace, the picture is the opposite. Pierre Sage’s side have now lost three straight Premier League games by a combined score of 9-0, and they have slipped into the relegation zone in 18th place on seven points. A red card after 13 minutes made Saturday’s task almost impossible, but the run of results will worry Palace supporters regardless of the circumstances.
What to Watch Next
What to watch next is whether Tottenham can extend their three-game winning run and keep climbing from eighth place, whether the revival under De Zerbi continues to gather pace, and whether Crystal Palace can stop a run of three straight defeats and climb out of the relegation zone. The other questions are whether Luca Williams-Barnett earns more minutes after his debut, and whether Spurs can turn dominance like Saturday’s 34 shots into goals more comfortably in their next matches.