Twenty months. That is how long it had been since Tottenham Hotspur last strung together three consecutive Premier League wins. Not a rough patch, not a sticky spell. Twenty months of building something and watching it collapse before it had a proper shape. So when the full-time whistle went at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Friday night, ending a comfortable 2-0 win over ten-man Crystal Palace, the number that mattered most was not on the scoreboard. It was that one. Three wins in a row. It sounds modest until you remember how long it took to get back there.
What Happened Before This Even Started?
The context around this match is worth sitting with for a moment, because it transforms what could easily be filed as a routine home win over a depleted side into something genuinely significant. Last weekend, Spurs went to Stamford Bridge and won. Their second victory at Chelsea in 36 years. That result was not just three points; it was a statement, and [we covered exactly what it meant and how it unfolded](/uprise/football/glitch-in-chelseas-coding-costs-alonso-while-resurgent-spurs-are). Roberto De Zerbi's side have now built on it immediately. That is the part that tends to separate a resurgent side from one still going through phases.
Palace, meanwhile, came to north London carrying problems of their own. Pierre Sage had bought himself some breathing room midweek with a Carabao Cup win at Fulham, but the scrutiny on him had not gone away. [The pressure on Sage has been building for weeks](/uprise/football/pierre-sage-given-more-time-by-crystal-palace-but-remains), and this result does nothing but turn up the heat. A cup win against Championship opposition softens the noise temporarily. A 2-0 hammering at Spurs, going home with nine men before the quarter-hour mark, puts it straight back on.
The Red Card That Shaped Everything
Jean-Philippe Mateta lasted thirteen minutes. His studs-up tackle on Micky van de Ven, catching the Dutch captain on the Achilles, was the kind of challenge that looks bad in real time and significantly worse on a VAR screen. Referee Michael Oliver started with a yellow, which was generous, and VAR did the honest thing by upgrading it to a red. The game changed completely in that moment.
What makes it more telling is how it happened. Van de Ven showed his pace to beat Mateta to the ball and the Palace forward, caught in no man's land, committed in a way he simply should not have. It is the sort of reckless intervention that makes you question a team's discipline as much as their tactical shape. For Palace, who were actually showing some early promise with Daichi Kamada testing Antonín Kinsky before the red card, it turned a manageable away day into a long, grim defensive shift.
For Spurs, it removed the chief difficulty of the evening. Two Mathys Tel crosses went unrewarded soon after, but with eleven men against ten, there was never any genuine doubt about which way this was heading.
Archie Gray Is Quietly Building Something
The goal that broke the deadlock said a lot about where this Spurs squad is right now. Mohammed Kudus delivered a dangerous corner to the back post, and Archie Gray was the man who met it with a header. His third goal for the club, his second against Palace specifically. That is not the output of a bit-part player finding himself in the right place. That is a young midfielder developing a proper habit of arriving into areas and contributing to results.
Gray was replaced at half-time by Pedro Porro, continuing his recovery from a hamstring injury, but the impact had already been made. This is a squad that De Zerbi is rotating intelligently, managing minutes, introducing players at the right moments. James Maddison was kept on the bench after his injury scare at Chelsea, which is exactly the kind of cautious management that tells you a manager is thinking beyond the next ninety minutes.
The Second Half And The Goal That Sealed It
Spurs came out for the second half with noticeably more intent. Fernandes had a volley blocked. Dominic Solanke, recalled to the starting eleven, turned smartly and tested Henderson before being replaced by Conor Gallagher. Andy Robertson was denied from close range. The second goal, when it arrived in the 73rd minute, was a fine piece of play. Fernandes produced a sensational cross, Van Hecke's initial header was tipped onto the crossbar by Henderson, and the former Brighton centre-back bundled it in from the floor.
There is a pleasing neatness in Van Hecke scoring against his former employers' Premier League rivals, but the real story is what the goal represented: clinical execution when the occasion called for it. Palace were exhausted by that point, running on empty with nine men, but Spurs made them pay properly rather than wasting the chances. That matters. This version of Tottenham looks like a team that has learned, at least temporarily, not to leave points on the floor.
What Does the Table Tell Us?
With nine games played, Spurs sit on twelve points: three wins, three draws, three losses. Eighth place, level on points with Bournemouth and Aston Villa. The gap to the top four remains significant, with Manchester City and Arsenal both sitting on twenty-one points and Brighton on nineteen. But the direction of travel is what counts. Three wins in a row puts De Zerbi's side in the conversation for a sustained push, and this is a squad with players like Kulusevski, who made his third appearance since a 526-day absence, still working their way back to full fitness.
The debut handed to teenager Luca Williams-Barnett in the closing minutes tells another story: De Zerbi trusts this squad, believes in the depth, and is not afraid to use a comfortable victory to blood someone new. Spurs home fans were chanting Harry Kane's name early in the first half, the Ballon d'Or winner's shadow still long over N17. But this side is building its own identity, slowly and with some conviction.
The Verdict
Three wins in a row is not a trophy and it is not a title charge. But it is proof of something. Under De Zerbi, Spurs look like a team with a structure, a purpose, and the confidence to back it up with results. Palace's disintegration after the red card made this evening more manageable than it might have been, but you still have to play the game, still have to find the goals, and still have to keep concentration for ninety minutes. Spurs did all of that. Crystal Palace, meanwhile, head back south with a manager whose situation grows more fragile by the weekend. For Sage, the calendar is not a friend right now. For De Zerbi, it is starting to look like something worth getting excited about.