Archie Gray was gutted to come off during Tottenham’s win over Crystal Palace but happy to put the team first and help his “brothers” secure another three points.
Spurs were bottom of the Premier League and winless after six games ahead of last month’s victory over Coventry but Saturday’s 2-0 triumph over Palace made it three consecutive league wins for the first time in 616 days.
Gray’s 25th-minute header helped break the deadlock against 10-man Palace, but a first-half yellow card meant Roberto De Zerbi took the English youngster off at half-time.
“Yeah, I was [gutted] to be fair, but I was on a yellow card and we didn’t want to take any risks,” Gray said.
“I think it’s a really important time for us. I think we have improved so much over the past couple of weeks.
“We’re more of a team, we’re more together and yeah, we’re just performing better because we’re work for each other on the pitch.”
A third Spurs goal for Gray was followed by the 20-year-old being embraced by a number of substitutes on the touchline.
Boss De Zerbi repeatedly referenced the importance of a new-look squad becoming a team in the opening weeks of the campaign and October’s warm weather training in Marbella may have done the trick to help get eighth-placed Tottenham back on track after last season’s narrow escape from relegation.
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Gray told SpursPlay: “The Marbella trip would have obviously helped and just getting to know each other. Being like almost brothers on the pitch, that’s something the gaffer talks about all the time and that is what we’re trying to do.
“We all get on really well and you can see that out there on the pitch. Even with the celebration, all the subs are running to the players and they are little things that mean so much to us. That’s the most important thing and why we’ve been improving.
“It’s really important to get three wins on the bounce. It hasn’t happened for quite a long time and to do that was really important.”
