London: Tottenham Hotspur suffered their second defeat in English knockout football in a matter of days as they were stunned 0-2 by Crystal Palace while holders Chelsea eased past Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup fourth round Sunday.
Connor Wickham gave the unfancied Eagles, 29 points adrift of Spurs in the Premier League, a ninth-minute lead before a penalty by former Tottenham winger Andros Townsend made it 2-0.
Kieran Trippier missed with a penalty for Spurs before half-time as Tottenham suffered more spot-kick woe following Thursday’s shoot-out defeat by Chelsea, another of their London rivals, in a League Cup semifinal.
On the other hand defending champions Chelsea had no such problems later on the day as they marked Argentina striker Gonzalo Higuain’s club debut with a 3-0 home win against Sheffield Wednesday.
Willian scored twice either side of a goal from highly-rated English teenager Callum Hudson-Odoi, linked with a transfer window move to German giants Bayern Munich.
It took Palace a mere nine minutes to open the scoring, Wickham following up after a Jeff Schlupp shot was blocked by Spurs goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga.
Palace then made the most of a bizarre incident when Spurs’ Kyle Walker-Peters handled a cross into the box. It was a clear penalty and Townsend made no mistake from the spot, slamming the ball into the middle of the goal.
Meanwhile, Chelsea did not have things all their own way against second-tier Wednesday, who thought they had been awarded a penalty in the 22nd minute.
Wednesday’s woe was compounded when Willian scored from the spot after Sam Hutchinson trod on Cesar Azpilicueta inside the box.
Chelsea had to wait until midway through the second half for Hudson-Odoi to make it 2-0 before Willian, playing a neat one-two with Olivier Giroud, completed the scoring seven minutes from time.
