Son Heung-min spared Tottenham’s blushes as his second-half winner sealed a 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace.

After blowing away Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday, Spurs were almost brought crashing down to earth by a resilient Palace side at Wembley.

But Wilfried Zaha spurned a golden chance to give the Eagles the lead and it proved a costly miss as Son’s fourth goal of the season sealed victory for Mauricio Pochettino’s side.

Tottenham move five points behind leaders Manchester City, who host Arsenal later on Sunday, while Palace remain bottom, with just one win now from 11 league games.

Tweet of the match

Star man – Son Hueng-min

Having replaced the injured and influential Dele Alli, Son not only provided Spurs’ most regular attacking threat but got the game’s only goal with a fine finish in the 64th minute.

Stat attack

Palace’s inability to score meant they became the first team to start a top-flight season without scoring in six away matches since Derby in 2007. Ominously, Derby were relegated and are yet to return to the Premier League.

Moment of the match

In the 57th minute, when Wilfried Zaha rounded Tottenham goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga at 0-0, he had been presented with the chance to potentially secure all three points. He instead struck just wide, and the hosts proceeded to win.

Player ratings

Tottenham

Paulo Gazzaniga 7

Davinson Sanchez 6

Eric Dier 7

Jan Vertonghen 7

Serge Aurier 6

Danny Rose 7

Harry Winks 7

Moussa Sissoko 6

Son Heung-min 8

Harry Kane 7

Subs

Mousa Dembele (for Winks, 46) 7

Fernando Llorente (for Kane, 77) 6

Ben Davies (for Rose, 90), 5

Crystal Palace

Julian Speroni 6

Timothy Fosu-Mensah 6

Scott Dann 6

Mamadou Sakho 7

Joel Ward 6

Ruben Loftus-Cheek 7

Yohan Cabaye 6

Luka Milivojevic 7

Jeffrey Schlupp 6

Wilfried Zaha 7

Andros Townsend 7

Subs

Bakary Sako (for Ward, 76) 5

Who’s up next?

Crystal Palace v Everton, Premier League, November 18
Arsenal v Tottenham, Premier League, November 18