Eberechi Eze bags brace as Tottenham brought back down to earth in Palace defeat

Europa League finalists Tottenham were brought back down to earth with a record-breaking Premier League defeat to Crystal Palace after a brace by Eberechi Eze in a 2-0 loss.

Spurs set up a European final with Manchester United on Thursday after they sealed a 5-1 aggregate victory over Bodo/Glimt, but Ange Postecoglou’s much-changed line-up slipped to a 20th league loss of the season.

It marks Tottenham’s worst-ever tally of defeats in the Premier League after they twice lost 19 fixtures in the 1993-94 and 2003-04 campaigns.

Sarr x Eze.#CPFC // #TOTCRY pic.twitter.com/giCSVWqSHd

— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) May 11, 2025

Perhaps of more concern to Postecoglou than another league reverse was a first-half injury to Dejan Kulusevski, but captain Son Heung-min did make his first appearance in a month following a foot issue.

It was a different story for Palace who warmed up for Saturday’s FA Cup final with three points after Eze tapped home on the stroke of half-time and added another – three minutes into the second period – to complete a league double over Tottenham.

Both teams have a final on the horizon and while Postecoglou made eight changes after victory in Bodo, Palace named arguably their strongest available line-up and had the ball in the net in the eighth minute.

Daniel Munoz was given aches of space down Spurs’ left-hand side and picked out Ismaila Sarr to tap home at the back post, but a VAR check followed and Jean-Philippe Mateta was adjudged to be fractionally offside by the halfway line.

The first injury scare of the afternoon occurred in the 13th minute when Kulusevski went down after he had a shot deflected wide – six minutes later and he had been replaced after another whack around his knee by Marc Guehi.

Pal