***26th December 2021***

{It’s the day after Christmas and Tottenham welcome Crystal Palace here at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for their 18th match of the season}

{It is match week 19 and after today’s game, Totteham still will have a game in hand}

{Right now they are four points behind fourth place Arsenal who have played two more games than they have}

{If they can win these two games, they will be on equal points, hence at this juncture, it can be said that Tottenham is back in contention for Champions League football next season}

{For a team that started the season at the beginning of the table, some of the fans may feel that they are far behind their rightful position and with their form, I think they really can still make a charge for league title this season}

{After all it’s only halfway into the season, but they will have to pull something spectacular out of their stash if they want to catch up with the league leaders who are 16 points ahead}

The commentators words had the Tottenham fans thinking with a wry smile as they saw the premier league standings.

Man City that they had beaten in the first game of the season had now become the league leaders and were almost 20 points away from them while they had suffered slump after slump and were only now showing signs of recovery.

However, as the commentator had said, it was only halfway into the season and if Man City could make an 16 point gap between them in one half of the season, then they should be able to do something similar in the second half of the season.

...

Then the Tottenham fans burst out laughing because that was just their wishful thinking.

Even if they won their two games in hand, the deficit would only reduce to 10 points between them and Man City.

But this was Man City, a team that consistently swept through the Premier League like they were mowing grass.

A team that for the first time in a long while had given people the heart to call the Premier League a farmers League being farmed season after season by Pep Guardiola.

A team that barely dropped points a whole season and once they were in the lead consistently held on to their lead without letting go.

Up against a team that despite its recent brilliant performance, clearly still had a lot of areas that needed filling.

It was clear to see that unless the impossible happened, Tottenham was already out of the race for Premier League champions.

But, this was football and hope was the cheapest thing around so they had hope that their team could still make a massive title run.

During the commentators introductory messages, the players had already finished all the pre-match formalities.

Surprisingly, Jason wasn’t starting the game and Conte was playing a more familiar front three of Kane, Son and Moura. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

When the decision was made, Jason clearly wasn’t happy with it, but Conte quickly told him that it was because there was another game against Southampton in just two days.

For the tougher opponents, Crystal Palace, he wanted Moura to play with a more familiar line up and then Jason could play against Southampton who were more defensive minded.

In a way, it signified Conte’s trust in Jason’s skills to believe that he could perform well even when players were being rested or exhausted.

With that explanation, Jason’s mood that had soured lightened up quickly.

Conte wasn’t a fool, he knew that the competition between Jason and Lucas for a spot was pushing the two of them to play out of their skin... Though Moura was the more affected one, but he also knew he had to manage this competition very well.

He couldn’t afford to have one side thinking the manager sided with the other side more, especially since he was a new manager and the January transfer window was coming soon.

That said, it had become clearer that his team was severely lacking in depth on the flanks.

He also needed more solid midfielders who could play his style of football and were ready to play their hearts out for the team, no matter how tiring it was.

Already, quite a few players were dissatisfied with their status and playing time, while some were dissatisfied with his tactics and work ethics so it looked like quite a few players in the starting lineup would be leaving in January and he already had eyes on replacements.

He would work on getting some of them in January and further transfers could be pushed to the summer break.

The match began and went back and forth in the beginning with both sides looking to score.

A long shot attempt from Son that just narrowly missed the left side of the goal got the attacking started and half an hour into the game, Moura began proving that he deserved his starting place in this game.

A long through pass from Emerson sent the ball forward towards the right side inside Crystals Palace’s penalty box and racing forward to catch it, Moura then cut it back inside for Harry Kane to score.

Kane who had always scored on boxing days immediately added another one to his tally, hitting the ball powerfully apart Butland and into the back of the net.

{Kane, the man who always scores on Boxing day, hits another one on the 26th!}

In the 34th minute, just two minutes later, Moura in the center of the final third, passed the ball to Hojberg who then released the ball to Emerson on the right flank.

While Emerson pushed to the side of the box, Moura also ran into the center of the box so when the cross from Emerson came flying over, he caught it off his head and sent it into the back of the net.

{He fought for the aerial space and he won it!}

{Tottenham are up by two and Moura has been involved in them both!}

With tensions already high after conceding 2 goals, Zaha angrily pushed down Emerson when the guy didn’t want to stop fighting for the ball.

In his anger he had forgotten that he already had a yellow card.

Instantly, the referee walked over, pulled out both the yellow and red cards and showed them to Zaha one after the other.

{It gets worse for Crystal Palace! Going down by two goals in less than five minutes and now their best player has been sent off!}