After going two goals down and going a man down, the fight in the Crystal Palace players diminished greatly.

Even the fans watching believed that the game was practically over now.

Their opponents were already difficult to deal with and could score two goals already even when they had eleven men on the pitch.

Now that they only had 10, it could only get worse for them unless they defended as best as they could.

With their most creative player, who was also their best player, having been sent off, they didn’t even have enough attacking power to try to stage a comeback.

Of course nothing was impossible and they could pull off the impossible if they tried, but their opponents were professionals.

If Crystal Palace dared to go for broke and sent players forward, Tottenham’s attack which was especially dangerous on the counter would not hesitate to punish them.

That being said, they wouldn’t give up on the game either as there was still a lot of time to play for and maybe they could reduce the deficit, or even equalize, if luck was on their side.

However, try as they might, Totteham continued to dominate the game till halftime and even after halftime, the situation didn’t change.

Going a man down was really starting to hurt them now.

The Crystal Palace players had to expend more energy because there was a hole, and their stamina levels were draining quicker than ever.

And in the 74th minute, Totteham punished them for it.

Kane received the ball on the right corner of the penalty box, pushed the ball out wide to Moura while jumping over a tackle.

Scanning the situation in the penalty box as the ball rolled into his path, Moura picked out a run from Son and sent the ball flying into his path.

Undetected by the Crystal Palace players, Son ran behind the defense line, jumped and got a foot to the ball, getting enough behind it to deflect it past Butland and past the goal line.

{Goal! Three for Tottenham, they’ve really been on form!}

{ A gift! That’s what Crystal Palace has been today! The perfect Christmas gift!}

{They brought themselves over, boxed themselves and delivered themselves into the hands of their opponents!}

The words of the commentators only worsened the Crystal Palace players’s moods.

They hadn’t even played that badly. Their opponents were just too strong and today wasn’t really their day... Like at all.

With the team already leading 3-0, Conte opted not to bring Jason on and instead gave Bergwijn and Bryan Gil some playtime, taking off Son and Kane.

Bergwijn and Bryan Gil took the flanks and Moura moved to the center.

All the changes made by the two managers only stabilized the game and neither side managed to trouble the scoreboard operator one more time before the final whistle.

When the final whistle finally went off, the Tottenham fans erupted in a huge wave of cheers as they applauded their players, Moura especially receiving quite the applause because of his performance today.

Two assists and one goal in a single game were impressive stats by any standard and Moura had casually pulled out such a top drawer performance just when the team needed it.

Conte was smiling on all ears.

Moura’s consecutive good performance had left him spoiled for choice and the battle between him and Jason ensured that the two of them did their best every game so as not to fall behind the other.

Now Moura had made his move, it was up to Jason to respond in the match against Southampton.

***28th December 2021***

True to the manager’s word, Jason was in the starting lineup at St Mary’s Stadium against Southampton.

The game began with a kickoff from the Southampton side and they immediately began trying to find a path to victory against Tottenham’s side.

Despite the management of the first team players’s minutes and the rotation of the squad, players like Hojberg, Son and Kane who had been playing week in week out were not fully rested and needed more time to settle into the game’s rhythm.

With a lot of the creativity dampened down, the onus fell on Jason to create chances, but the opponents had long noticed that he was the man to keep in check.

As soon as the game began, Jason barely got any space to run into and the Southampton players around him did their best to make sure the ball didn’t even reach him.

They didn’t even hesitate to fowl him hard, trying to keep him unsettled.

While the Tottenham players were still trying to settle into the game, the Southampton side struck first.

24 minutes into the game, Southampton got a throw-in from the left side of the penalty box.

Salisu made a long throw into Tottenham’s penalty box and the ball was chested by Armstrong towards Southampton captain, James Ward Prowse.

Aiming at goal, James sent the ball flying at the goal with a powerful, aiming for the space between all the players in the penalty box.

He wasn’t one of the most accurate shooters in the league for nothing and the ball flew powerfully at the goal, beyond Lloris and into the back of the net.

{Goal!}

{They are the homeowners and they will not just lie over for the stronger side! Southampton score first and what a goal it was!}

{Rocket! Absolute rocket!}

{Throw-ins are usually looked down upon but a well practiced routine like this can cause trouble for any opponent!}

{Will Southampton keep attacking, looking for another or will they get behind the ball and try to hold on to this lead!?}

{Either choice has its risks, but the manager will try to make the appropriate choice, I’m sure}

The match resumed and right after the game resumed, the Totteham first held onto possession, allowing the Southampton players to come into their half before trying to stun them with a lightning fast counter.

The ball was soon passes to Jason on the right flank in their own half by Hojberg and Jason turning with the ball, chose to run down the flank on the outside as there were three players blocking him from cutting in.

With a drop of his left shoulder, Jason confused James into thinking he was going to cut inside, but a sudden burst forward allowed Jason to run past him on the outside.

However while Jason has run past James, Armstrong wasn’t going to let him go any further and Jason realized after getting past James that Armstrong was already tackling at the ball.

Since he had flicked the ball forward to get past, he was too far away and couldn’t reach it first.

Sliding at the ball, Armstrong hit itl out of play and Jason jumped over him while sighing inwardly at the wasted chance, but before he could think any further, Salisu, the third guy in his path crashed into him, knocking him down despite him not being with the ball.

Falling and rolling off the pitch into Southampton’s technical area, Jason only stopped after rolling a few times.

"Get up man, stop being a baby!" Those were the words Jason heard after barely stopping.

Immediately sitting up in annoyance, Jason was about to let Salisu have a piece of his mind, when he saw the referee running over.

Holding his tongue and waiting for the referee to vindicate him, Jason waited only to see the referee give Salisu a stern warning and then begin spraying the ground to indicate the fouling point.

"No card? Ref what was that?"

"This is not even the first time today!" Unable to stay silent anymore, Jason burst out at the referee.

"I already warned him. This is English football, stop whining and let me do my job," the referee snapped back, not wanting to hear someone telling him how to do his job.

"Does English football mean bad refereeing, because that’s all I’ve been seeing," already frustrated from being fouled so many times with the game barely being half an hour in, Jason couldn’t keep himself from blowing over.

Kane saw what was happening and immediately rushed over trying to stop the situation from becoming worse and Conte even tried to shout words to Jason from the sidelines, but Anthony Taylor, the referee was already ticked off at Jason and pulled out a yellow card.

"Keep talking and you’ll have an early shower," Taylor said, holding up the yellow card.

"Oh wow," a line inside Jason’s head snapped instantly as he stared at the referee in shock.

{Oh, that’s surprising! The player who has been fouled is the one who has been booked}

{Clearly he wasn’t too happy about the referee’s decision and he said something and whatever it is, the referee didn’t like it}

"Hey, leave it," Kane got between Jason and Taylor before another word escaped Jason’s mouth.

"No man, this is some bullsh*t," Jason wasn’t going to be held back, but other teammates quickly got there to hold him back.

{Cool down man, just chill! We can’t afford to be a man down right now} the voice of reason finally got through to Jason, but he despite cooling off, his face still carries defiance.

He may have stopped talking, but he wasn’t backing down.