Pochettino's men edge nervy win on an historic night in front of 59,215 but hard-working Eagles limit them to few clear chances
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HE makes them go weak at the knees.
Heung-Min Son, sliding across the playing surface to celebrate Tottenham’s first goal here, quickened the pulse.
That is what football is all about.
It numbs the pain and the aggro that comes with blowing a cool £1bn of borrowed cash building a world class arena.
The punters were sent home happy and for 24 hours – until the banks start knocking on the posh doors for their dosh – so did Daniel Levy.
If some mean-spirited jobsworth in the Dubious Goals Committee ends up taking Sonny’s 59th minute goal away from him, they have a heart of stone.
It could happen because Palace skipper Luka Milivojevic diverted Son’s left-footed effort beyond Vicente Guaita.
Tottenham’s second, scored by the magician Christian Eriksen, is a footnote in the very first Premier League game here.
All those dewy-eyed punters, the 59,215 who re-mortgaged their homes in Tottenham hinterland, skipped out of the stadium.
That is what football is all about.
It numbs the pain and the aggro that comes with blowing a cool £1bn of borrowed cash building a world class arena.
The punters were sent home happy and for 24 hours – until the banks start knocking on the posh doors for their dosh – so did Daniel Levy.
If some mean-spirited jobsworth in the Dubious Goals Committee ends up taking Sonny’s 59th minute goal away from him, they have a heart of stone.
It could happen because Palace skipper Luka Milivojevic diverted Son’s left-footed effort beyond Vicente Guaita.
Tottenham’s second, scored by the magician Christian Eriksen, is a footnote in the very first Premier League game here.
All those dewy-eyed punters, the 59,215 who re-mortgaged their homes in Tottenham hinterland, skipped out of the stadium.
They came to marvel at it, to coo at the giant Cockerel perched proudly on top of the south stand and to celebrate a return to Haringey. Nobody ever did that before.
The regeneration project is underway, with Spurs breathing new life into this area with all their commercial might.
They guzzled ale served from the longest bar in England before kick off and ate from hip street markets flogging deep-fried chicken, Morley’s-style.
The football was finger-licking good, a nod firmly in the direction of the great players to wear this famous white shirt.
Memories live on… Harry Kane is today’s Jurgen Klinsmann, Eriksen’s effortless skills will trigger memories of John White and Sonny is, well, Sonny.
Tottenham only had one training session at this stadium and yet they played like they belonged.
Once they got an impressive – and mercifully quick – opening ceremony out of the way, this was all about Spurs.
Victory, a result that takes these boys into third, separates their form from all those rotten results of late.
Successive Premier League defeats on the road at Burnley, Chelsea, Southampton and Liverpool are behind them.
Now they have this banana skin Palace game out of the way they can look ahead.
There is the potential classic against Manchester City in the Champions League on Tuesday and then the sprint finish to the final game of the season, at home to Everton.
This win, on a night of first this and first that, was critical.
Palace are a bloody tough watch at the moment, with their stodgy, workmanlike football starting to grate.
For 45 minutes their plan worked because there was stony silence when Spurs walked off at half-time.
Poch’s players had been fitful, with anxiety about who and when and what minute the first goal would arrive.
The sensible money was on Kane, especially making it clear he would take on all comers ahead of a 26thminute free-kick.
Off his trademark, stuttering run up his right footer deflected off the Palace wall for a corner.
Spurs tried again, with Kane and Eriksen combining for the Son chance before the break.
The forward took it early, but Palace keeper Vicente Guaita, crouching like a frog, steered it away for a corner.
The White Wall, theatre-quiet when the players trudged off at the break, turned up the volume in the second half.
They responded because Palace forward Michy Batshuayi tried his luck from an angle on the edge of the area. Spurs stirred.
Milivojevic’s mistake led to it, losing the ball to the twinkle-toed boots of Eriksen on the left.
He found Son with a delicious pass and the Spurs forward worked the angles to get his shot away.
It provoked joyous, trophy-winning scenes in the stands, with Tottenham fans in raptures as they celebrated this historic strike.
Palace, trying something else by sending on Spurs old boy Andros Townsend, were about to leave quietly and anonymously through the back door.
They conceded again 10 minutes from time when Kane’s persistence was rewarded as he burrowed his way into the area.
The ball fell kindly to Eriksen and the Spurs forward swept in the second goal beyond Guaita with his customary class and composure.
This win will settle them down because there are few things worse in life than bumping into a grumpy Spurs fan at work first thing.
Let them have their moment.
They were squatters in someone else’s stadium for nearly two years, schlepping to Wembley before Levy finally made good on his promise to take them home.
Without doubt, they have their Tottenham back.
