Son Heung-min's fantastic second-half strike earned Tottenham Hotspur a 1-0 win against a wasteful Crystal Palace side at Wembley on Sunday afternoon to close the gap on their title rivals ahead of their big games.
Son struck for Spurs in the 64th minute of a game that the visitors really should have been leading given the amount of chances they missed before going behind in the game.
Mauricio Pochettino's men though saw the game through to earn another important three points but the game showed exactly why the Eagles are where they are in the Premier League table.
Both managers were forced to make changes for the game
In terms of team news before the game, Pochettino had to field a team without the injured Hugo Lloris, Toby Alderweireld and Dele Alli, while Roy Hodgson made only one change from his side's last game with the injured Patrick van Aanholt being replaced by Timothy Fosu-Mensah.
The visitors had the better chances in a very dull first half
The game itself saw little chances in the first half but the best ones that did come fell the way of the struggling visitors.
The first chance for the visitors came in the first five minutes of the game when Mamadou Sakho completely missed a header when Wilfried Zaha found the defender unmarked in the box with a great cross.
The other big chance that they had fell the way of Scott Dann but he saw his goalbound header from a corner from Yohan Cabaye brilliantly saved by Paulo Gazzaniga.
At the other end, Spurs had a couple of half chances as Danny Rose and Harry Kane both seen headers just go over the bar from inside the box.
But at the break, the score remained goalless with Spurs needing to do much better in the second half if they were going to break down a defiant Palace defence.
Gazzaniga to the rescue for Spurs as Palace continued to miss chances at the start of the second half
The problem that Spurs had though was that they started slowly once again at the start of the second half and that allowed the visitors to get some confidence and they came very close to an opening goal three minutes after the break when Andros Townsend broke into the Spurs box before seeing his goalbound shot well-saved by Gazzaniga.
Minutes later, Palace had an even better chance to take the lead when a great through ball from Townsend found Zaha through on goal but after rounding Gazzaniga, the winger somehow dragged his shot wide with the goal open.
The chances kept coming for the visitors and they failed to take them as Luka Milivojević was next to be denied by the impressive Gazzaniga after Spurs failed to clear a corner kick.
Son punished Palace with a wonderful curling strike after the hour mark
These misses as they usually do when you are struggling at the bottom of the table, came at a cost, as Spurs punished the visitors just after the hour mark when Son hit a wonderful curling shot from outside the box into the back of the net after the ball came to him after Palace failed to clear the ball fully from a Moussa Sissoko cross.
After the goal, Spurs finally seized control of the match without adding to the only goal that they did manage to score.
Spurs saw the game out without much fuss to earn another important three points
Son though should really have scored a second goal when Jan Vertonghen played him through on goal but he put his shot wide with the goalkeeper well beaten.
Therefore at full-time, Spurs just about managed to come away with another crucial three points, while the visitors knew that they should have got something from the game given the chances that they missed.