Player ratings as Spurs end four-match winless run

FROM TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STADIUM – Tottenham boosted their Europa League hopes with a hard-fought 1-0 win at home to Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Harry Kane scored a record 10th headed goal of the Premier League season to hand Ryan Mason his first win since re-taking interim charge.

After the hosts spent the opening 17 minutes toying with a fluid 3-4-3/4-4-2 system, they rattled the crossbar from a corner when Cristian Romero rose high to meet Pedro Porro’s delivery, denied an opening goal by a matter of inches.

Soon after, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg worked a nice give-and-go with Kane, with the Dane marauding into the box but firing high and wide.

At the other end, Michael Olise came in off the right with a fortunate if improvised touch to skip past Clement Lenglet, though his sliced strike was held by Fraser Forster.

From another corner, Porro picked out Romero, and though his header was hardly fearsome, Joel Ward nearly skewed his clearance into his own net.

A superb long ball from Olise caught Spurs off guard and saw Joachim Andersen outmuscle Richarlison to create some space for an opening, but he lost his composure when closed down by Ben Davies and meekly fired over.

Entering first-half stoppage time, Tottenham took the lead. Kane managed to swivel away from Marc Guehi and pick out Porro with a terrific looping ball, and the Spaniard returned the favour with a delicate cross onto the head of the his captain, peeling away from Joel Ward and finding the net.

Kane has now passed Wayne Rooney into second place on the Premier League’s all-time scoring charts.

Palace started the second half with renewed intensity – Wilfried Zaha’s floated shot only narrowly sailed wide, while Eberechi Eze dragged a strike of his own wide after the visitors worked some space on the far right.

Spurs’ first chance of the second half came when Kane’s limp pass forward was retrieved by an alert Richarlison, slipping Porro in off the right flank. Both Richarlison and Son Heung-min were in the box waiting for a cross but he instead chose to shoot with his weaker left foot, a poor decision which saw the ball fly well wide to the annoyance of his teammates.

Porro then decided to go for goal a few minutes later from a similar angle, with his shot this time looping off of Tyrick Mitchell’s foot and forcing Sam Johnstone into a save at his near post.

The wing-back again went close with a whipped free-kick from the left, which somehow avoided a host of waiting heads and bodies and was only inches…