Ex-Spurs Scout: Crystal Palace player ratings v Tottenham – Ayew dazzles, Lerma struggles
Tottenham News is delighted to welcome aboard our brilliant new columnist Bryan King, the former goalkeeper who spent six years as a senior scout at Spurs and 28 years in total in first-team scouting roles. Bryan also spent eight years on Everton’s recruitment team and 11 years scouting at Aston Villa across two different spells.
Tottenham extended their lead at the top of the Premier League with a 2-1 win against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Friday 27 October.
An own goal from Joel Ward and Son Heung-min’s eighth league goal of the season were enough to secure all three points, although Andrew Ayew did make the contest interesting with his late strike.
In the end, it turned out to be nothing more than a consolation, and Ange Postecoglou maintained his unbeaten start to his Premier League career.
Ex-Spurs scout Bryan King watched on for Tottenham News and has provided his player ratings for the hosts on the evening.
Sam Johnstone – 6
“He did okay, he was tidy, but he had no chance with either of the goals.”
Joel Ward – 5
“He is a steady fullback, the own goal was unfortunate, he was in there defending and the ball came at him with great pace, it was unlucky.”
Joachim Andersen – 7
“He got booked for a late challenge and rightly so. You see tackles like that and some people get straight reds for them. Apart from that, he did reasonably well.”
Marc Guehi – 7
“He had a brilliant chance with a header, he should have done much better with it. Overall, just like Andersen, he defended reasonably well.”
Tyrick Mitchell – 7
“I thought he started well. He has got pace, likes to push on and Dejan Kulusevski didn’t put him under too much pressure defensively. Unfortunately for Palace, he picked up an injury.”
Jefferson Lerma – 5
“I never noticed him in the game.”
Cheick Doucoure – 6
“He is probably the better of Palace’s three midfielders, he worked hard but that is about all I can say.”
Jordan Ayew – 7
“Palace’s standout player. He impressed me with his movement and his pace. He took his goal well, it was a good finish. He always looked as if he could create something.”
Will Hughes – 6
“Again, nothing impressive but he does work hard.”
Jeffery Schlupp – 5
“Did he play? He didn’t get in the game at all. He would have been relieved himself to come off.”
Odsonne Edouard – 6
“I thought he was lucky with the number of fouls he made, in another game, he might have picked up two yellow cards. He took Cristian Romero out and that could have been much worse than it was. He had one good chance which was saved by Guglielmo Vicario, but didn’t offer much else apart from that.”
Subsitutes
Matheus Franca – 5
Jean-Philippe Mateta – 5
Nathaniel Clyne – 6
Naouirou Ahamada – 5
Jesurun Rak-Sakyi – 5
In other Tottenham news, John Wenham is backing an “incredibly frustrated” Spurs Under-18s side to avenge their previous defeat against Chelsea.