Spurs come from behind to beat Palace 3-1 and move to within two points of Villa in race for Premier League top four

Tottenham Hotspur 3 (Werner 77, Romero 80, Son 88)

Crystal Palace 1 (Eze 59)

Att: 61,339

Spurs came from a goal down to beat Crystal Palace 3-1 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this afternoon, moving to within two points of Aston Villa in the race for fourth place.

The home side looked the more likely all afternoon but were behind after 59 minutes when the returning Eberechi Eze curled a beautiful free-kick past Guglielmo Vicario.

But two quickfire Spurs goals - from Timo Werner and Cristian Romero - turned the game on its head, before Heung-Min Son put the icing on the cake late on - piling the pressure on Villa ahead of their 5.30pm kick-off at Luton.

Palace had the first half-chance of the game. Spurs, who insisted on playing out from the back despite temporarily being down to 10 men with Micky van de Ven off the field, gifted the south Londoners a free-kick after being caught in possession.

The free-kick was played into a dangerous area, but Jean-Philippe Mateta's shot was blocked.

Tottenham then wasted a massive chance. Eze, in his first game under Oliver Glasner, was caught in possession in his own half by Rodrigo Bentancur. Son set Werner free to run the length of the Palace half unchallenged, but Sam Johnstone was able to smother the ball as Werner attempted to take it round him.

Johnstone looked rather less assured minutes later when he spilled a free-kick from James Maddison, but the resulting corner came to nothing.

Spurs were beginning to look more threatening and broke with pace soon after. Bissouma played the ball to Maddison who swept the ball out right to Dejan Kulusevsku. 

He found Emerson Royal, who had a relatively simple ball across the box to Son, but overhit his centre and the move broke down.

Spurs were pressing once again early in the second half. They had a shout for a penalty turned down after a tackle on Werner before Son's fantastic first-time shot smacked against the right-hand post from Kulusevski's centre.

But against the run of play, the returning Eze gave Palace the lead from a free-kick, just left of centre, which the striker curled beyond the reach of Vicarior's left hand.

Spurs came back, Werner bringing the best out of Johnstone in the Eagles goal, diving to his right to save a shot from close range.

Then Brennan Johnson, the hero here two games ago against Brighton, shot over from six yards just minutes after coming on.

Palace were hanging on by this stage. Son made space for himself by beating Joel Ward but his shot was pulled wide of Johnstone's left-hand post.

But Spurs were finally level on 77 minutes. Joachim Andersen got himself into all sorts of trouble down the Spurs right, Johnson came away with the ball and his cross was turned home by Werner.

And within the blink of an eye they were ahead - as simple as you like. Spurs took a short throw, Maddison lobbed the ball into the box and Romero rose high to head home.

Then Son raced clear as Palace pushed forward for an equaliser and tucked the ball home to secure the win for Spurs.

Villa can make the gap five again later today - then the two meet next week at Villa Park in what could be a crucial game in that Champions League race.

Teams:

Spurs: Vicario, Son (Scarlett 90), Bissouma (Lo Celso 90), Maddison (Hojbjerg 83), Royal, Werner (Sarr 83), Romero, Kulusevski, Bentancur (Johnson 63), van de Ven, Udogie

Palace: Johnstone, Ward, Mitchell, Lerma, Ayew (Hughes 71), Eze (Franca 66), Munoz, Mateta, Andersen, Wharton (Edouard 71), Richards

Referee: John Brooks

Picture: Charlie Stong