The Eagles’ second London derby of the week – off the back of a promising 1-0 win over Fulham in the Carabao Cup, for which Sage made 10 changes to his starting XI – sees them look to return to winning ways in the Premier League.
Ahead of the game, Sage said of Jean-Philippe Mateta, who did not feature on Wednesday: “He’s ready to play, and we managed him yesterday, because he played two 60-minutes in seven days, and normally he has to play only two 30-minutes.
“That’s why we left him out of the team yesterday, to be able to play and be ready to start against Tottenham.”
On Ismaïla Sarr, Sage added: “For the moment, he’s not able to play.”
But more positively on fellow forward Jørgen Strand Larsen: “We will see today – he will train with the group today.
“He’s trained individually for the moment, but today he will be ready to be with us.”
And on midfielder Quinten Timber, Sage noted: “Tomorrow for him [he will return] and [he will have] maybe have some minutes with the team on Saturday.”
The Manager was pleased to report that the rest of his players came through unscathed at Craven Cottage: “There were no problems yesterday evening.
“Dean Henderson played yesterday and he’s able to play now. As it’s the day after, we’ll recover players.
“It’s always difficult when you didn’t play for a long time to play, and some of them need time in these games – to find their habits, to show their real level and to play together.
“But we defended a lot and I think that helped the players to understand a lot, and be better with the minutes. Some of them gave me some good messages and it’s always a good option to have more solutions.”
Match Details
Tottenham Hotspur v Crystal Palace
- Saturday, 31st October
- 17:30 GMT
- Premier League
- Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
- Live audio commentary on Palace TV+