Crystal Palace were beaten by Spurs on Saturday afternoon despite Oliver Glasner’s side being impressive for most of the game.
At the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, Crystal Palace couldn’t quite survive the entire game as heavy Spurs pressure eventually saw them pull away.
But this wasn’t before the Selhurst Park side enjoyed some positive moments in the game with the best individual moment being Eberechi Eze‘s free-kick goal.
Ultimately this proved little more than a consolation as some individual lapses in concentration saw Spurs score three times in 11 minutes to beat Palace 3-1.
In the game, there was one player who stood out for Palace and it wasn’t Eze who despite his goal was quite with Palace very much on the back-foot.
Despite conceding three goals, the standout for Palace was quite clearly USA international Chris Richards who was immense in defence before being let down by individual errors elsewhere for two of the three goals conceded.
But prior to conceding those goals, Palace looked set to keep Spurs at bay and it was Richards who was leading the charge on that aspect as he dominated.
He won 100 per cent of his tackles, made eight clearances, made three interceptions, made 14 defensive actions and made five recoveries according to FotMob.
He also won three duels and got on the ball 42 times, even managing to make two passes into the final third on Palace’s moments in the attack which were few and far between.
Sign for just £8.5m from Bayern Munich in 2022, Richards is now showing his ability and living up to the potential many thought he had.
Even against a side Palace probably expected to lose to given it’s still early days in Oliver Glasner‘s era at the club, he was so strong in defence.
After Roy Hodgson played him everywhere but centre-halve, Glasner has made this look a silly decision since joining as the American has probably been one of the best players over the past three games.
It’s an exciting time to be around Palace, despite losing there is a feeling that Glasner will build something great and now attention turns to a very winnable game next weekend against Luton in which a win could effectively guarantee safety.
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