Spurs see off Crystal Palace after Mateta’s early red to pile pressure on Sage

Fortune is not favouring Pierre Sage. Just when the Crystal Palace manager needed a positive result, Jean-Philippe Mateta’s early red card condemned his side to a third straight defeat in the league, leaving their manager’s position hanging by a thread.

Goals from Archie Gray and Jan Paul van Hecke ensured that Tottenham recorded a third successive victory for the first time in 616 days as they moved into the top half of the table. To put that into context, Spurs have had three full-time managers since then, so it was no wonder that Roberto De Zerbi looked so pleased at full-time.

By contrast, Sage’s future is in doubt, given that there was an expectation he could be sacked if they lost this game. While Mateta’s red card did him no favours and Palace did not disgrace themselves, they now find themselves in the bottom three. Only the chair, Steve Parish, will decide his fate with Liverpool up next at home before the international break. Sean Dyche and Thomas Frank are waiting in the wings. Having only won twice here previously in the league all year, Tottenham’s supporters had reason to be optimistic after successive victories over Coventry and Chelsea. But while De Zerbi used his programme notes to urge his players not to get complacent, there is no mistaking the signs of momentum.

While they have struggled in the league under Sage so far, Palace have been much better in the cup competitions. Oscar Mingueza’s reward for an excellent performance against Fulham in midweek was a first Premier League start on the right flank.

Yet after an encouraging start that saw Mateta fire straight at Antonin Kinsky, disaster struck in the 13th minute. Mateta was never going to get to the ball before Micky van de Ven as he passed it back to his goalkeeper and his studs caught the Tottenham defender on the back of his heel. The referee, Michael Oliver, initially showed a yellow card, but the outcome was inevitable when the VAR directed him upstairs. Some of the home supporters gasped when they saw a slow-motion replay on the giant screens, although that made it look much worse.

Sage shook his head as Mateta trudged down the tunnel. Not for the first time this season, after Axel Disasi’s red card against Ipswich last month, Palace found themselves down to 10 men with most of the game still to play. They managed to keep Tottenham at bay for a while but played a part in their own downfall again. No one was picking up Gray - who scored his first Spurs goal against Palace in a rare win under Thomas Frank last year - at the back post from a deep Mohammed Kudus corner, and he headed in unopposed. The television cameras cut to Parish in the stand looking less than impressed.

It could have been worse had Gray made more of a similar corner routine that caught Palace napping again, although De Zerbi would not have been satisfied with the chances his side created given their numerical advantage. His solution was to replace Gray at the break with Pedro Porro.Tottenham managed to address that at the start of the second half as the impressive Mathys Tel, Matheus Fernandes and Omar Marmoush all tried their luck as Palace retreated further. Van Hecke should have done better from close range after another corner but ballooned into the crowd.

In an attempt to relieve some of the pressure, Sage threw on former Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah to jeers from the Spurs fans. Dwight McNeil had a rare sight of goal that was blocked but Palace almost paid the price as Tottenham broke downfield and Henderson got down well to save when Marmoush blocked Tyrick Mitchell’s attempted clearance.

Any hopes Palace had of snatching something ended when Fernandes picked out Van Hecke and the Dutchman, on the ground, cleverly nodded the ball over the line after Henderson had pushed his initial header onto the bar. Dejan Kulusevski’s brilliant strike that was tipped over would have rounded off the perfect afternoon for De Zerbi, who is proving to be another example of how quickly things can change in football.