At present Crystal Palace, Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur are involved in a triangular series of Premier London Derbies (PLDs) matches. On Sunday 28 February 2021 Crystal Palace 0 v 0 Fulham was the score at Selhurst Park. By all accounts it was a game of missed chances, particularly late on by the Cottagers’ Ademola Lookman, and good goalkeeping by Vincente Guaita, which deprived Fulham of the chance to close the gap to 3 points on Newcastle United in 17th place and Brighton and Hove Albion 16th both on 26. This was Manager Roy Hodgson’s 150th game in charge of Crystal Palace, and his reward is that the Eagles have their highest points tally (34 from 27 played) at this stage of the season since 1992.
Four days later and it was Fulham 0 v 1 Tottenham Hotspur again at Craven Cottage on Thursday 4 March 2021. The Spurs’ opener on 19 minutes was initially credited to Dele Allibut then given as an own goal against home defender Tosin Adarabioyo. If there was any controversy in this it was certainly less than that when Fulham’s “equalizer” by Josh Matawas ruled out by VAR for hand ball against teammate Mario Lemina in the build-up play. So at least 1 point lost and now 1 more game played than those 2 Clubs immediately above.
The triangle is completed on Sunday 7 March when Tottenham Hotspur entertain Crystal Palace. PLDs form favours the home side with scores in recent seasons being: 1-0 in 2016-17; 1-0 in 2017-18; 0-2 in 2018-19; and 4-0 in 2019-20. The 0-2 home defeat in season 2018-19 was very “Spursy” being the first home game in the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium! This time Spurs are fresh from 2 consecutive Premier League (PL) wins in a row for the first time since they went top of the PL on 21 November 2020 and now only 3 points behind West Ham United in 6th and 5 behind Chelsea in 4th, but we shall see what history brings.
Until next time “Keep Safe” and enjoy your football, Andrew at PLDs.