Second half goals from Christian Eriksen and Jermaine Defoe handed Tottenham Hotspur a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace side that missed South African Kagisho Dikgacoi.

It was a game of two halves at White Hart Lane, but a dominant second half performance from the home side saw them claim all three points.

The away side certainly started the better of the two teams and were on the attack from the word go, leaving Spurs a little stunned in the opening stages.

Jason Puncheon came close to opening the scoring as early as the third minute for Palace when he saw his shot from the edge of the 18-yard box skim the wrong side of the upright.

Four minutes later and Marouane Chamakh was on the end of a great through ball, but with the keeper just to beat his touch was a little heavy, but that didn’t stop Mousa Dembele clattering into the back of him and the referee awarding a penalty.

Puncheon stepped up to the spot for Palace, but he fired the penalty-kick high over the crossbar. It was a horrible miss.

Palace were at it again in the 28^th minute as Cameron Jerome hit a bouncing ball from the edge of the area which Hugo Lloris did brilliantly to beat clear.

Five minutes later and Chamakh was on the end of a corner-kick, but he saw his effort cleared off the goalline.

Spurs finally created their first decent opening on goal in the 35^th minute as Nabil Bentaleb let fly from 25-yards, but saw his shot strike the inside of the post, which then rolled along the line and, somehow, stayed out.

The second 45 saw the visiting side take a back seat as Spurs began to dominate proceedings.

Three minutes after the restart Roberto Soldado worked some space inside the box before playing the ball to Christian Eriksen who saw his effort blocked on the line.

Eriksen, though, made no such mistake in the 50^th minute as he handed Spurs the lead with a clinical finish after being put through on goal by Emmanuel Adebayor, 1-0.

Spurs continued to dominate proceedings and only a superb save by Julian Speroni kept the scores the same as he denied Jermaine Defoe with a fantastic save in the 62^nd minute.

Spurs, though, were not to be denied and the found their second goal ten minutes later after Defoe was played through on goal by Aaron Lennon and he slipped the ball past the goalkeeper, 2-0.

Palace tried to find their way back into the match, but were unable to breach a stubborn Spurs defence.