The North Londoners' need for three points was a little more acute given that they were languishing in 14th spot, and in Thomas Frank, they had a manager who appeared to be rapidly losing the support of the Spurs faithful.
Palace looking to Mateta to lead the line
Palace had been riding high under Oliver Glasner, though their performance in a 4-1 defeat against Leeds United at Elland Road left a lot to be desired.
A repeat of their 2-0 victory at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last season was therefore very much needed from the South Londoners.
With the scorer of both of those goals, Eberechi Eze, now having moved to Arsenal, the Eagles were always going to be looking towards Jean-Philippe Mateta to continue to help do the damage up front this season.
The Frenchman's seven goals tie him in fifth for the EPL's top scorers in 2025, whilst the Lillywhites also had a seven-goal man up front in Richarlison.
At Selhurst Park this season, Palace had two wins, four draws, and two losses in eight games, and were looking to reverse a three-match Premier League home winless streak dating back to November 9 against Brighton.
Spurs were on their own three-match winless streak away, not grabbing all three points since their match on October 26 against Everton at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
In their eight away fixtures in 25/26, the North Londoners had won four, drawn two and suffered two defeats.
Slow start from both teams
Both Frank and Glasner made two changes to their starting XIs, Kevin Danso and Richarlison coming in for Tottenham as Xavi Simons and Cristian Romero were suspended, Jefferson Lerma and Justin Devenny starting for Palace as Chris Richards was out injured and Eddie Nketiah was dropped.
Danso's first contribution was to get booked, his yellow card being the earliest (4 minutes, 37 seconds) by a Spurs player in a Premier League London derby since Michael Dawson v Charlton in December 2006 (3 minutes 51 seconds).
A rather cagey opening to the game from both teams saw hardly any attacking action of note in the opening quarter hour, save for Devenny's blocked shot and Mateta's off-target effort.
Worryingly for Frank, this match was the seventh in the current campaign that Tottenham had failed to attempt a single shot in the opening 20 minutes of a league game - the joint-most in the division, along with Burnley.
Palace on the front foot but Gray makes history
As Palace pushed harder, Devenny, Mateta, Yeremy Pino and Tyrick Mitchell all had attempts, and Marc Guehi's nine line-breaking passes in the opening half hour were more than the entire Spurs team combined (eight) by that point.
With 40 minutes gone, the visitors had yet to have a shot on target, but just two minutes later, Archie Gray nodded home after a set-piece caused confusion, bagging his first senior goal in his 112th appearance.
In so doing, Gray (19y 291d) became the youngest Englishman to score for Tottenham in the English top-flight since Dele Alli in January 2016 (19y 287d - also v Crystal Palace).
Glasner won't have needed reminding either that Palace had failed to win any of their last four matches when conceding first in the Premier League, since a victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers on 20th May 2025, or that they hadn't come back to win a London derby in the league when trailing at half-time since December 1992 (3-1 v QPR).
Set-pieces remain a problem for the Eagles
Six of the nine league goals the South Londoners have conceded in December have come from set pieces too, including each of the last six in a row, indicating a real Achilles Heel developing.
The Eagles again seized the initiative at the start of the second half, with Devenny, Adam Wharton and Nathaniel Clyne all having at least five touches in the Tottenham penalty area.
Although the collective passing accuracy was a little on the low side at 79.2%, it was still markedly better than their opponents' 69.4%.
Where Spurs were excelling, however, was in the more combative aspects of the game. Each of Danso, Rodrigo Bentancur and Richarlison was involved in at least 15 one-to-one duels, emerging successfully in the majority of cases.
Opportunity missed
Palace's 68% possession across the opening 15 minutes of the second half amounted to little in the way of attacking intent, and that led to frustration on the Selhurst Park terraces.
The clear imbalance could most noticeably be evidenced by the fact that, with 70 minutes played, the hosts had already had 12 shots in this match, higher than their season average of 11.6 in the Premier League, but none of which led to big chances; their most attempts without a big chance in a top-flight game since October 2024 v Nottingham Forest (20).
Tottenham, by contrast, hadn't managed a single shot since Gray's first-half opener, with Wilson Odobert's 88th-minute effort that cannoned back off the woodwork the closest they came to adding to the scoreline.
Ultimately, Glasner will look upon this game as an opportunity missed.
Palace had more passes (544, their most this season) than Spurs, two-thirds of the possession, more shots and more dribbles, yet still weren't able to rattle an under-par Tottenham side who travel to Frank's old club, Brentford, for their next assignment on New Year's Day.
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