Tottenham will look to make it three Premier League wins in a row when they host Crystal Palace on Saturday night.

The struggling Eagles travel to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium hovering dangerously above the relegation zone, having suffered a 5-0 defeat by Brighton and a 2-0 loss to Newcastle in the last two league matches.

And they face an in-form Spurs side who have climbed up the table thanks to impressive back-to-back wins over Coventry and Chelsea.

Roberto De Zerbi will be hoping to keep up the momentum when he goes head-to-head with a familiar face in Pierre Sage.

Here's the transcript from the Italian's pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon...

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On James Maddison's injury scare at Chelsea

“This week, Maddison didn't work like the other players, but, for tomorrow, he is available. He is a special player for us - a special player because he has unique characteristics, different than everyone. Maybe just Xavi Simons is very close with him, but he is injured, or Deki Kulusevski can play as a 10, similar to James.

“He special for the characteristics, for the experience, for the personality, but we can play with Marmoush as a 10 or with Conor Gallagher as a 10. We played already with Mateus Fernandes, even he is better as a playmaker, but it is not important I think the characteristics of the players, the most important is to put the players in the right position for them.

"I think for James or anyway for the players who are coming from injury, long injury, you have to work more than the other players, but he is already four or five weeks working very hard and consistently."

On players returning from injury

“So, I think it’s not a problem if he loses two days (training), but then we have to analyse if we take risk or not. If we take risk like Pedro Porro (against Aston Villa) or (Dejan) Kulusevski. We are lucky to have a big squad and it’s important to not take risk with new injuries.”

On Destiny Udogie being available this weekend

"He is available. He can't work consistently during the week. After Man United he didn't work with us for a long time. We have great medical staff and we are taking the right decision, for the right players in the right moment."

On the four players ruled out

“Still out [are] Tosin, [Lucas] Bergvall, [Mykhailo] Mudryk. Savio is injured. Everyone else is available."

On Pedro Porro's return

"Pedro is one of the biggest players. A great guy. Sensitive guy. Passionate guy. We are very lucky to have Pedro with us."

On Mathys Tel's impact

"I'm proud and happy but first of all for him because I love working for the players, to improve the players. I lost in my career many chances to become a better player. A focus of my job is to work on the improvement of the players. Mathys is working very hard. He's a smart guy with big potential. I am here to help my players"

On the recent turnaround

"We can't ask for time. We can't ask for anything. We have the quality to win games and become better and better. Tomorrow is a big test because we have won two games in a row. We have to show the mentality, the attitude, the right spirit."

On under-pressure Crystal Palace manager Pierre Sage

"I know very well Pierre Sage. He is a very good coach. I have known him for a long time, from Lyon, last season at Lens. He's a very good coach. I watched the game against Fulham, against Besiktas and Newcastle. They are alive."