Tottenham Secure Vital Victory for Frank as Calvert-Lewin Halts Sunderland Advance
Tottenham managed to secure a crucial three points for the beleaguered Thomas Frank with a narrow 1-0 triumph over Crystal Palace, while impressive Sunderland were pegged back to a 1-1 stalemate by Leeds on Sunday.
Archie Gray emerged as Tottenham's surprise hero at Selhurst Park, netting his maiden senior strike as Frank's squad notched only their second league success in nine outings.
Richarlison saw a pair of efforts ruled out for offside, yet Gray's header proved sufficient against a Palace outfit visibly fatigued from a punishing fixture list.
The Eagles have now gone five games without a victory, struggling to cope after overextending their modest squad across three fronts.
Oliver Glasner had branded his team's handling of set pieces in a 4-1 loss to Leeds the previous weekend as "embarrassing", and once again, a dead-ball situation undid them versus a Tottenham side short on inventive play.
This long-awaited win offers Frank some brief respite from criticism, though a display lacking sparkle in attack is unlikely to silence sceptical fans among the Tottenham faithful.
The away side failed to register a single open-play effort on target before the interval, surviving only thanks to a VAR offside check when Richarlison believed he had broken the deadlock.
Rather, the game's sole strike came from an unforeseen source, with Gray nodding in Richarlison's deft touch from a corner, marking his debut goal across 112 outings for Tottenham and Leeds.
Palace controlled much of the territory and ball after the restart, but fell short of the finesse required to punish Tottenham up front.
Justin Devenny fired wildly over from near point-blank range, followed by Maxence Lacroix nodding astray.
Palace gained further relief when Richarlison bundled home Mohammed Kudus' delivery, only for VAR to intervene anew.
Nonetheless, Tottenham endured to rise to 11th position, trailing Palace in ninth by a solitary point.
Farke Avoids Table Celebration
Earlier, Dominic Calvert-Lewin extended his scoring streak to six straight Premier League matches, ensuring Leeds thwarted Sunderland's bid for a top-five spot in a draw at the Stadium of Light.
Simon Adingra handed the Black Cats a lead at the break, but the prolific Calvert-Lewin equalised shortly into the second half, boosting Leeds' buffer from the drop zone.
Sunderland remain unbeaten on home turf since reclaiming top-flight status, yet have suffered from losing six squad members to the Africa Cup of Nations.
Adingra featured prominently for Ivory Coast in their triumphant AFCON campaign on home ground last year, though he was overlooked this edition.
Sunderland profited from that omission, as the ex-Brighton wide man bent in his inaugural club goal from Granit Xhaka's exquisite pass after 28 minutes.
Leeds had edged the contest for extended phases before half-time and burst into the second period with intent.
Calvert-Lewin connected with Brenden Aaronson's driven centre for his eighth strike this term, six of them across the prior half-dozen fixtures.
The ex-Everton forward's hot streak has been instrumental in steering Leeds from peril and safeguarding Daniel Farke's tenure.
The German faced imminent sacking before a run of five without defeat lifted his side seven points above the relegation scrap.
"I'm not dancing on the table tonight," Farke remarked. "The feeling was if we were a bit more clinical we should have won the game."
Sunderland squandered the opportunity to surpass Manchester United and Chelsea, holding seventh, merely four points shy of the play-off places.