Published: 18 August, 2013

by DAN CARRIER at Selhurst Park

Premier League

CRYSTAL PALACE 0, SPURS 1

NEW boy Bobby Soldado got Spurs off to a winning start in the new season with a second-half penalty at Crystal Palace – and won praise from Andre Villas-Boas.

The manager had seen his Spanish striker slot home calmly from 12 yards and said he felt the forward could hit 20-plus goals this term.

“His career speaks for itself,” said the Spurs boss.

“He scores goals. He took his penalty so confidently. It was good to see how many chances he created and his ambience on the pitch.”

AVB said the striker would only get better.

“He has only had around three weeks with his new team-mates,” he added. “We shall see Soldado and Paulinho develop in the future.”

AVB also joked that he was relieved to see his side win their first ever penalty under his guidance as he goes into his second term.

“I'm still celebrating our first official penalty,” he said.

Spurs started brightly, with the new boys Paulinho, Soldado and Chadli making Premiership debuts and keen to show what they could do.

Soldado, a club record signing, made himself space on a couple of occasions early on but failed to hit the target, while Paulinho demonstrated a good range of tackles and passes.

But despite having much of the possession, Spurs lacked a final ball and were limited to Gylfi Sigurdsson testing Palace keeper Julian Speroni from range on 33, and Chadli pushed a header wide on the final seconds of the first period.

Moments into the second half, as Spurs began to get stuck in and whistle passes acrosssthe pitch, a tricky run by Aaron Lennon saw his cross strike Palace defender Dean Moxey's arm and the referee Mark Clattenburg had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Soldado calmly finished.

It could and probably should have been two, minutes later when Soldado and Walker combined to play in Sigurdsson, but he shovelled his effort narrowly wide. Sub Jermain Defoe was equally wasteful when Chadli found him in space with five minutes left but ultimately Spurs did enough to warrant the points. 

SPURS COMMENT by Dan Carrier

With four players making their debut, this was a team big on talent but lacking Premiership experience.

Bobby Soldado will steal the headlines as his goal was the winner: he looked physically able to handle himself, and his penalty was pure class.

Second-half sub Etienne Capoue's first touch was to anticipate a Palace attack, step in to win it, use his body strength to keep it and then drive it forward well. It looked wonderful. His second was to hit and hope a shot into row Z, but he is a defensive midfielder, so slack must be cut.

Winger Nacer Chadli was solid, but hardly set the left flank alight: it seemed Danny Rose overlapped more, while this might have had something to do with Spurs constantly feeding it down the right.

Paulinho scampered, won tackles and showed good composure. He didn't link too well with Sigurdsson – but that will come with game time. Overall, the £60million spent so far seems to be good business.

SPURS: Lloris, Walker, Rose, Vertonghen, Lennon, Paulinho, Soldado, Dembele, Dawson, Chadli, Sigurdsson. Subs: Friedel, Kaboul, Capoue, Naughton, Townsend, Defoe, Carroll.

Attendance: 23,285