Tottenham Hotspur’s season is dying a lingering death, Crystal Palace fans’ chant sums up how poor Ange Postecoglou’s men are

Crystal Palace fans started chanting ‘ole’ at one point during the second half of their 2-0 win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

It was to mark a neat passing move which came to nothing but had sparkled with brief promise.

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It was worth an ‘ole’ or three. Except it was a rare Spurs passing move.

Palace fans were chanting mockingly. Spurs were that poor.

This was a tale of two finalists, and two differing approaches by their managers.

Oliver Glasner, whose Palace side play in Saturday’s FA Cup final, went strong and was rewarded with a powerful performance by his players, especially Eberechi Eze, Will Hughes, Daniel Munoz and Marc Guehi.

Ange Postecoglou made eight changes from his regulars, the argument being that Spurs had just returned from Bodo and were saving legs for the Europa League final in ten days.

Everyone knows Postecoglou hasn’t got a Plan B and this showed he
hasn’t got a B team. It was hard to advance a case for any of his reserves.

What has happened to Djed Spence? Palace took one look at Spurs left-back and attacked again and again. Munoz and Ismaila Sarr both gave him an uncomfortable time.

Even those supposed A-listers who came on for Spurs, notably Heung-min Son, were markedly off the pace. Son’s decline from former heights has been one of the sadder sights of the past 18 months.

A magnificent player in his prime, flowing quickly over the ground and threatening constantly, the 32-year-old has lost much of
his mobility and menace.

There was some logic to Postecoglou starting Dejan Kulusevski. He still needs minutes after only three starts and four sub appearances following being out six weeks injured.

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Kulusevski sustained a knock to his right knee following a forceful, but
fair challenge from Guehi after 19 minutes.

Postecoglou said afterwards that he expected the Swede to be ‘okay’ for the final. With James Maddison and Lucas Bergvall out, Postecoglou cannot afford any more injuries.

Just as Kulusevski hobbled off, Spurs limp towards the finishing line of the Premier League. Their league campaign has turned into a long, lingering death, urgently needing putting out of its misery.

They aren’t going down but to be one position above the drop (albeit 16 points clear of 17 th ) is inexcusable for such a proud club.

Suffering 20 league defeats is similarly unacceptable. Tottenham fans were remarkably restrained when the merciful release of the final whistle signalled only two wins in their last 13 home games. Many had left by then.

Bilbao or bust it is then.

Postecoglou has a point when arguing that teams wrestling
for a top-five finish would love to have a European final to look forward to.

Trophies matter. But a tidal wave of anger will flood towards his dug-out if they lose to Manchester United.

And, even if they win, could Spurs keep a manager who has failed so badly domestically? The prospect of Champions League football, through winning the Europa League, would make the job even more appealing to any potential successor.

The only chance of Glasner leaving Palace if one of the heavyweight clubs comes in for him.

He’s so impressing with tactics, man-management, performances and results including the run to the final.

Palace supporters are loving it, singing of Wembley, and mocking Spurs here.

If this 3,000 make this much noise, heaven knows what 33,000 are going to make at Wembley on Saturday.

They dominated here. Hughes ran midfield, too quick to press and win the ball, and too effective in his passing. Eze’s movement and touch were too much for Spurs.

Palace had the ball in the net after only eight minutes, following a flowing move from Jean-Philippe Mateta to Eze to Munoz to Ismaila Sarr, who scored at the far-post.

The goal was ruled out for an offside decision against Mateta whose feet were in his own half but shoulder in Spurs’.

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Some clarification arrived from Stockley Park: “VAR checked the referee’s call of goal – and established that Mateta was in an offside position in the build-up and recommended that the goal was disallowed.”

We could see that from the referee’s signal. Greater explanation was required and the ensuing photo didn’t clear up too
much.

Fans deserve better clarification. It has been 142 years since the offside law was brought in to prevent goal-hanging and we now have a player ruled offside 58 yards from goal by technology.

Semi-automated offside was meant to end debate. But the issue here is obviously the law, and gives more credibility to Arsene Wenger’s proposed ‘daylights’ rule.

A player would be deemed onside as long as any part of their body was in line with the last defender.

Palace didn’t worry too long. Munoz kept raiding down the right and fed in a perfect cross for Eze to make it 1-0 at the start of four minutes’ first-half added time.

Lightning struck twice. Three minutes after the break, Sarr went down the right and played the ball back for Eze to double Palace’s lead and deepen Tottenham’s pain.

Eddie Nketiah wasted a great chance to make it 3-0 but the game was long over.

The mocking chants of ‘ole’ confirmed that.