Mauricio Pochettino blamed fatigue as his Tottenham side were booed off at the final whistle on Saturday afternoon, as their problems continued with a disappointing goalless draw against Crystal Palace.

“I think that the team didn’t show the freshness that we showed in another game, maybe it’s because we play three games in six days, and maybe this was the problem.

“It’s not easy, to play against Chelsea who had one day more for recovery and today against Crystal Palace, who had three days for recovery. This is a little advantage for the opponent. I think we had a lack of freshness and it wasn’t a easy game to play,” the Spurs manager explained.

It could have been much worse for the hosts had it not been for the brilliance of Hugo Lloris, who pulled off two superb saves to deny Scott Dann and Yannick Bolasie either side of the break to ensure a share of the points in the London derby.

The Eagles were the more likely of the two sides to break the deadlock and will feel they deserved to win the game based on the chances they created throughout.

Bolasie produced a sublime piece of skill to fashion an opening for Joe Ledley in the first half, but the Welshman fired just over from inside the area, while Jason Puncheon rattled the crossbar and saw a goal correctly ruled out for offside late on.

Chances for Spurs were few and far between, the best fell to Roberto Soldado just after the hour mark, but the Spaniard failed to hit the target with just Julian Speroni to beat.

Boos greeted the hosts upon the final whistle as back-to-back home league wins this season remain elusive for Pochettino’s side.

The point keeps Palace out of the relegation zone and manager Neil Warnock was left to reflect on missed opportunities following the game.

“It’s (about) taking your chances. We’ve had some great chances today — if one of the top teams had our chances today they would have won three or four.

“I’m proud and happy that we got a point, but there was an opportunity to come to White Hart Lane and go away with three points,” he said.