Tottenham Beat 10-Man Crystal Palace 2-0, Gray and Van Hecke Score

Tottenham beat Crystal Palace 2-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, in a London derby that turned on a red card after 13 minutes. Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta was sent off for a studs-up challenge on Micky van de Ven, and Spurs scored once in each half against the ten men, through Archie Gray and Jan Paul van Hecke.

The result is a third straight Premier League win for Tottenham. For Palace, it is a third straight league defeat, and the pressure on manager Pierre Sage grows. Palace started the day 18th and stay in the bottom three.

The red card that set the game

Mateta chased a ball in behind the Tottenham defense at full pace and slid in as Van de Ven tipped it away. His studs caught the defender on the Achilles, and Van Hecke tumbled on top of the pair. Referee Michael Oliver first showed a yellow card. VAR sent him to the monitor, and he upgraded it to a straight red. It was the first red card of Mateta's time at Palace, in just his third league start of the season after a hamstring injury.

Palace held out for 12 minutes with ten men. Then Mohammed Kudus swung in a corner, and Gray, unmarked at the back post, headed back across goal and beyond Dean Henderson. Gray is 20, and he does not score often, but he had already scored against Palace before in his young career.

Tottenham controlled the rest of the half. The halftime numbers told the story: 78 percent possession for Spurs, eight shots to one.

The second goal was a scramble

Spurs needed a second goal to make the points safe, and it came in the 73rd minute in odd fashion. Mateus Fernandes crossed deep from the right. Van Hecke rose and headed toward goal. Henderson got two hands to it and pushed the ball onto the crossbar. The ball dropped back down onto Van Hecke, who was sitting on the ground, and went in off his head. It was not planned, and it was not pretty, but it counted.

Spurs had a third goal ruled out in the 85th minute, and substitute Conor Gallagher should have scored late on, chesting the ball down before Henderson saved his bouncing shot. It did not matter. Palace, a man down for 77 minutes, never built a spell of pressure.

Why it matters

For Tottenham, three league wins in a row steady a season that needed direction, and the clean sheet matters as much as the goals. Gray's rise is the story inside the story: a 20-year-old midfielder trusted in a derby, scoring the goal that broke the game open.

For Palace, the numbers are grim. A 5-0 defeat at Brighton and a loss to Newcastle came before this one. Sage's team has now lost three straight in the league, and the red card will draw the headlines, but Palace created almost nothing even before it. Mateta's suspension now removes their main striker from the next match as well.

Key numbers

• Final score: Tottenham 2, Crystal Palace 0
• Red card: Jean-Philippe Mateta, 13th minute, after a VAR review
• Goals: Archie Gray in the 25th minute, Jan Paul van Hecke in the 73rd minute
• Halftime shots: Tottenham 8, Crystal Palace 1, with 78 percent possession for Spurs
• Palace: third straight league defeat, starting the day in 18th place

What happens next

Tottenham will try to stretch the winning run and climb toward the top half. Palace go home with a striker suspended, a manager under scrutiny, and a third defeat that leaves them looking down at the bottom of the table rather than up from it.