LONDON (AP) — Tottenham trimmed Chelsea’s lead to four points again by edging past Crystal Palace 1-0 on Wednesday, with Christian Eriksen clinching the north London team’s eighth successive Premier League win.

Eriksen collected a pass from Harry Kane and unleashed a dipping shot from around 25 yards (meters) in the 78th minute into the bottom corner of the net.

Tottenham’s bid for a first title since 1961 rests on Chelsea dropping points on the five-game final stretch. But the team’s character in recovering from Saturday’s FA Cup semifinal loss to Chelsea pleased manager Mauricio Pochettino.

“That was always going to be difficult after Saturday, and it was a big challenge for us,” Pochettino said. “I think it was a great opportunity to show we are focused on us and trying to improve our game, and to fight when we are under pressure.”

Tottenham looked far from title contenders in the first half, with Christian Benteke and Andros Townsend close to giving Palace the lead.

Pochettino made a double change at the break, replacing central midfielders Mousa Dembele and Victor Wanyama with Son Heung-min and Moussa Sissoko.

Dele Alli should have put Spurs ahead when he met Kyle Walker’s cross three yards (meters) out, only to side-foot his effort across goal and wide. But Eriksen clinched the three points.

“I am very pleased for Christian, it was an unbelievable goal,” Pochettino said. “We changed things at halftime and in the second half we were much better and after 90, 95 minutes I think we fully deserved the win.”

Palace had won six of its previous eight games, including at Liverpool on Sunday to move seven points above the relegation zone.

“I thought in the first half we took the game to Tottenham, which is not easy, and of course the lack of recovery time from Sunday to tonight told in the end,” Allardyce said. “In the second half we were not able to challenge Tottenham as much as in the first half. It was a terrific effort, but the odds were against us, I knew we would tire.

“The lads gave everything, it wasn’t quite good enough in the end but it was a terrific performance.”

Allardyce fears defender Mamadou Sakho will miss the rest of the season after he was carried off on a stretcher with what appeared to be knee ligament damage. The Frenchman is on loan from Liverpool.

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