Tottenham down to bare bones at centre-back as Eric Dier limps out of Crystal Palace clash

Crystal Palace vs Tottenham

Saturday’s early Premier League kick-off is currently playing out and sees Crystal Palace and Tottenham face off at Selhurst Park.

Spurs headed into the match as the only side to win all three of their Premier League games so far this season, putting them top of the table.

Crystal Palace, on the other hand, have picked up just one point under new boss Patrick Viera.

Palace, however, were likely boosted by the fact that Nuno Espirito Santo would be forced to field a slightly weaker squad on Saturday.

Heung-min Son and Steven Bergwijn both missed out through injury, whilst Giovani Lo Celso, Cristian Romero and Davinson Sanchez could not play yet after traveling to red-list countries during the international break.

Dier injury blow

And, with less than 20 minutes gone vs Palace, Spurs’ woes at the back have taken a further hit.

With Romero and Sanchez missing, Eric Dier and Japhet Tanaga were deployed as the starting centre-halves against Palace.

Tanganga had started the season putting in some excellent displays at right-back, but the Romero/Sanchez situation did look to have forced Nuno’s hand somewhat.

And now, Spurs’ centre-back woes have now deepened even further as Eric Dier was forced off inside the opening 15 minutes on Saturday:

The inexperienced Joe Rodon has now partnered Tanganga at the back, and, depending on the extent of Dier’s injury, this may need to be Tottenham’s CB pairing for their next two games as well.

And with the pair arriving just the day before Chelsea, will Nuno want to throw one of Sanchez or Romero straight back in?

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