Tottenham Hotspur 2 Crystal Palace 0: Eagles unable to spoil homecoming party

Crystal Palace failed to spoil the homecoming party as Tottenham ran out comfortable winners on their first game at their new ground.

Heung-Min Son has the honour of bagging the first goal at the new stadium as he opened the scoring shortly after half-time. Christian Eriksen added a second late on as the home side avenged Palace’s FA Cup triumph over Spurs earlier in the campaign.

Palace sat in from the beginning as the hosts dominated the ball but struggled to unlock their visitors in the opening exchanges.

Dele Alli had the first sight of goal as he headed straight into the arms of Eagles stopper Vicente Guaita but Spurs found their chances limited as Roy Hodgson’s men stuck to their game plan.

Forays forward were few and far between for the South Londoners, but Jeffrey Schlupp should have done better when blazing over the bar from an angle after a swift Palace counter.

A last-ditch challenge from full-back Patrick van Aanholt stopped England captain Harry Kane in his tracks after a through-ball from Christian Eriksen, before the latter forced Guaita into a smart save as the pressure built on the Palace goal.

A free-kick from Kane looked goal-bound but for a deflection off Michy Batshuayi in the wall, with Son the next to try his luck but firing wide whilst slipping over.

Van Aanholt similarly became a victim of the damp surface as he fell whilst trying to get a shot off at the other end but in the end neither side made the breakthrough before the interval.

The Eagles nearly stunned the majority of the 59,215 crowd as Batshuayi whistled an effort just beyond Hugo Lloris’ far-post early in the second-period – but the hosts were finally off the mark at their new home ten minutes after the break.

Son cut inside and benefited from a huge deflection off Palace skipper Luka Milivojevic, with Guaita wrongfooted as the ball dribbled into the net.

Kane blazed over after an awful ball out from Martin Kelly was played into his path, but the England forward was heavily involved as Spurs killed the game off with ten minutes left to play.

The World Cup golden boot winner went down in the area, but whilst the home fans were appealing for a spot-kick the loose ball fell to Eriksen who swept home from close range.

The visitors finally became relevant as an attacking threat in the closing stages, with Christian Benteke guilty of heading a sitter wide and Wilfried Zaha denied by the legs of Lloris after waltzing through the Spurs penalty area – but it was all too little too late as they fell to a first league defeat on the road in four games.