Aston Villa (Home) 03.11.2024

Villa set up in a rigid 4-4-2 to restrict the space available to Spurs and they looked to make early inroads into the Tottenham area.  Rogers fired a shot over the bar from outside the box in the third minute and then a ball flashed across the face of goal with Watkins missing it completely.  The visitors doubled up on Son when he received the ball with Cash and McGinn, with Destiny Udogie getting a good cheer when he clattered Cash after the Villa full-back’s past history of putting our players out with injury.  The early part of the game saw Spurs pressing high, but every time they on the ball, it ran for Villa, although when Son’s cross went back to the far side of the box Porro hit the bouncing ball high into the Paxton Road stand.

To be honest the match was fairly dreadful for the first half an hour.  Littered with petty free-kicks, mainly for McGinn sticking his fat arse into Spurs players who were behind him.  The pantomime booing of Cash aside, there was few opportunities and when Udogie won the ball cleanly off McGinn, much to the Villa midfielder’s disgust, the breakaway failed to result in anything more than a corner, as Kulusevski over-hit his pass to the right for Johnson, who did well to reach it.  Bentancur shot way over with 18 minutes gone, Sarr had one low shot that Johnson diverted at goal but was offside if it hadn’t been saved and Pape’s second effort saw him get it all wrong and slice the ball straight up into the air.  Three minutes after his previous shot, Rodrigo fired in a shot that Martinez wasn’t troubled by, but it dipped a bit too late and rippled the top of the goal netting.

That effort signalled the start of Villa’s time-wasting, taking ages over each goal-kick and Martinez was allowed to hold the ball for up to 12 seconds before releasing it by referee Pawson, who was lenient all game.  After the first couple of forays into the Spurs defensive third, Villa found it hard to get out of their half, as Spurs had the majority of possession in this period, but failed to create and clear-cut chances with it.  Tottenham weren’t great in transition during the first half, as Villa quickly got men back behind the ball.  Going down so easily, Villa were winning a lot of free-kicks that broke up play and as the game got to 30 minutes, Radu Dragusin stuck out a leg to deflect a Ramsey shot from 20 yard out over the bar.  The corner was played into the near post and Vicario punched the ball away, but the second phase saw the ball played long to the far post, where the giant Onana jumped highest to head the ball down against the post with Guglielmo smuggling it away before Udogie put it out for another corner. 

All of this was out of context with the game to this point and from corners, it was Villa’s intent to upset Vicario by getting McGinn, Torres, Rogers and Watkins to get around him and prevent him being able to attack the ball.  Sometimes you feel that he needs to disregard what is going on around him and just concentrate on the ball.  on this occasion, he couldn’t have claimed it as it was whipped in to the near post from their right, Porro glanced it on, it hit Bentancur with Vicario reacting well to keep it out but it dropped a yard out for Rogers to poke into the net.  To say that it had come against the run of play would be an understatement, but these are Villa’s tactics.  Suddenly, the away fans found their voice.

With a block of claret and blue shirts across the box, Tottenham were forced to play the ball from side to side across the pitch, with Son giving Cash a hard time, but unable to craft anything like a quality opening.  Villa’s only action to relieve the pressure was to moan to the referee that Bentancur should have got a yellow card for a foul on Onana, although a pass from Porro to Son was cut out and they broke on Spurs, as Rogers played Watkins in the left-hand channel and he finished woefully well wide when he should at least have worked Vicario three minutes before half-time.  Bentancur drove another shot from22 yards out that went a couple of feet over the bar, but Spurs were being restricted to long-range efforts.  We did get into the box right on half-time, when Pape Matar Sarr won the ball halfway inside the Villa half and Kulusevski passed it on to Dominic Solanke, he moved the ball into the area, came inside to look for a curling shot towards the far post, but it was blocked.

There were no changes at half-time, as Spurs kicked off being a goal down at home, which wasn’t an unusual thing.  Villa got away with a booking when Watkins went in late after Romero cleared the ball and then a foul when Ramsey pulled Porro back three times with no free-kick given.  As Rogers brought the ball away he was caught late by Bentancur but the ref played on as Villa were on the attack, only to stop the game when Spurs had the ball to see if he was injured.  It wasn’t a head injury so why the game had to be stopped who knows, but it angered the crowd after a number of other curious decision he made.  The play restarted by dropping the ball at Romero’s feet and it was moved from left to right in our own half with Udogie playing forward along the line to Son.  The captain had Cash go to him quickly and McGinn not so quickly, but neither were that close to him, so he played a cross in along the six yard line and with the other Villa defenders slow to get back, Konsa left it for his keeper.  The only thing was Martinez was back in his goal, so the ball travelled across goal to where Brennan Johnson was towards the far post and his firm side-foot went under the keeper to make it 1-1 four minutes after the second half started.  Brennan just beat Solanke to it and was about two yards out but the keeper could not recover his ground quickly enough to get anything on it.

As if the equaliser wasn’t enough, Villa were slow from the kick-off and Spurs won the ball back, forcing a corner off Torres.  Unfortunately, it was plonked straight into Martinez’s hands.  Villa did break the press soon after, but Tielemens ball forward was cut out by Destiny’s outstretched leg and sonny took it on before playing it back to Udogie on the overlap.  Faced by Cash, he came inside, with the Villa defender running past him, then picked out Solanke just on the penalty spot and he did well to control a difficult ball and get a shot off that the keeper had to dive low to his right to get behind.  Then Son nut-megged Onana to pass to Kulusevski but his cross was blocked, coming out to Porro on the right-hand corner of the area and he tried to cut across the ball, but could only slice it into the air, although it almost dropped into the top corner, landing on top of the goal.

Martinez’s time-wasting tactics were bringing a chorus of boos from the Spurs crowd and when he eventually went long, Rogers ran at Romero, who slipped and as he tried to made ground up the Villa left, Pedro slid in, but too late for the ball earning him a yellow card.  The free-kick was cleared, but only to McGinn, who went for power instead of placement and the ball bent well away from the Tottenham goal.  Bentancur had been struggling, so was replaced by Bissouma, but Son was shocked to see his number come up with Richarlison coming on for him.  When Rogers tried to get away again, he pushed it a little too far, Romero started his tackle a long way away and couldn’t get there in time, wiping the winger out and picking up a yellow card.  Rogers tried to carry on, but Cash had gone down, so needed treatment before being subbed, then Cristian had been sorting out his right boot and went down, needing treatment and having to be replaced by Ben Davies.  It had been a long stoppage one way and another.  When play resumed it wasn’t long before Onana went down when he challenged Sarr and the referee again checked on the Villa midfielder after Martinez kicking the ball out stopped play.  More loud booing as this game was constantly being interrupted by the referee.  It wasn’t a head injury, which the ref indicated it was, but he seemed to have caught a hand in his face, so it all just wound the crowd up even more.

Johnson threw the ball back to Villa, which wound the crowd up further, but they did cause a little concern when a free-kick on their left wing was pulled back for Digne to shoot low at goal, but Diego Carlos diverted it on the way and took it well wide.  Having committed the foul that gave the visitors the free-kick, Pape wriggled away from McGinn at the other end a few minutes later and tried to curl a shot to Martinez’s left hand post, but it went about six feet wide.  In the process, Rogers had tried to block him and was fallen on, so he needed more treatment as they tried to eke out time.  Ramsey moved up the left to pull a ball across the middle of the penalty area, but it was behind all his team-mates and Spurs worked the ball to the right for Porro to ping a fine diagonal ball to Richarlison on the other wing.  The Brazilian curled in a cross, but didn’t pick out a Spurs player, so, after the ritual putting the ball down, bringing players in and then shooing them away before actually kicking the ball, Watkins was beaten to it by Udogie in the left back position.   Then, in the 75th minute, they tried to play Watkins through, but Ben Davies snapped into a tackle to win Onana’s pass and Pape took it on, playing it in to Johnson just outside the D and it was his touch that put it in front of Dejan Kulusevski.  The Swede slipped a delightful little pass between Torres and Carlos to put Dominic into the area and with Martinez going low and early, it made up our striker’s mind to dink the ball over him and into the net, with Konsa claiming offside.  After a VAR check that took a little while, so it must have been close, it proved that Konsa was the one playing him on and the goal stood to put Spurs ahead.

Villa strung together some passes and Tielemens on the left looked to put a ball beyond the Spurs defenders on the other side of the box, where Konsa came in and didn’t make a great contact with the ball, but got it to the near post, where Udogie cleared before Vicario got there.  Villa recycled the ball and Onana tried a shot from 20 yards that was both high and wide.  Torres was having a torrid time at the other end, losing his position and his marker time and again, so when he passed the ball straight to Sarr inside the centre-circle in the Villa half, it was not a surprise.  Pape to the ball to just outside the box and slid it left for Richarlison, who everyone thought would shoot, but he squared the ball, as the man he replaced had done, allowing Solanke to run onto it in the middle of the goal to side-foot it home from the six yard line with Torres floundering and Martinez down at his near post.  If it was possible, the volume among the Tottenham fans increased even more as they celebrated the goal.  But Richarlison looked initially to have hurt himself going down the slope behind the goal, but he had grabbed his hamstring just after he delivered the assist for Dom.  There was concern from his team-mates, but he managed to get back onto the pitch, where he then went down to receive attention from the medical staff and then going off for Maddison to come on for him, as Archie Gray gave Destiny Udogie a break.  At the same time, Dick Emery (ooh, he is awful … ask your Mum and Dad about that reference) brought off McGinn, Tielemens and Ramsey for Philogene, Bailey and Kamara, having brought on super-sub Duran previously.

At 3-1, the game had been taken away from Villa in a style becoming familiar to Tottenham.  When the game goes in our favour, teams are swept away and can do little to stop the momentum.  Ironic cheers came from the Spurs fans as Martinez took a quick goal-kick, which started a move that ended with Davies and Gray thwarting Bailey’s cross that popped up into Vicario’s hands.  For the final ten minutes, Villa enjoyed some possession in the Spurs half, but nothing more than a corner came from it and that ended with Onana throwing Dragusin to the floor, as the fourth official raised his added time board showing 10 (ten) minutes.

Despite the groans from some members of the Tottenham support, the players were retaining possession try to manage the latter stages of the match.  When the ball was lost, Solanke showed great stamina to win the ball back after 93 minutes of play and Brennan Johnson should be credited with keeping going even though he looked like he was exhausted.  Working the ball around the centre of the pitch, Sarr then played a short pass right to Maddison, who fizzed it into Dominic’s feet in the D, where Carlos dragged him over just outside the 18 yard line.  The defender lost his head as he then pushed our number 19 while he was on the ground.  Villa put a draught excluder in place while the opponents found it hard to be 10 yards off the ball.  With the ref blowing his whistle to take the free-kick, Maddison didn’t waste any time (ironic, eh ?) as he clipped a shot around the wall to hit the net just inside Martinez’s left hand post, with the self-proclaimed best keeper in the world totally flat-footed and nowhere near the ball.  It was great to see us score direct from a free-kick, as it doesn’t happen often, but with delicious irony that the game was into its 96th minute, some of which was due to the Argentine keeper’s time-wasting.  The shot started a long way outside the line of the post and came back a long way, with the keeper hoping that Madders had not got enough bend on it, as he was helpless. 

Much like last week, coming back from a goal behind to be winning 4-1, the away end was almost empty as the Brummies tried to get home before the tube strike kicked in, but there was still time for Sarr to try a first time shot when Villa were pressured into turning over possession in the 100th minute of the match.

You can Count von count on Emery to make Villa hard to beat and that was what they were in the first half, but after the interval, whether it was Spurs pressing harder and moving the ball quicker or the visitors tiring, there appeared to be more space available for the Tottenham players to work in, making good decisions when they were on the ball.  The relentlessness of Ange’s style means that there is no respite when Spurs are on it and while this was lacking at Palace, today, Villa couldn’t live with it.  With only one shot on target the whole game and no tackles won in the Spurs half, Villa were poor and the only down point for Spurs was the injuries picked up in the second half, which hopefully won’t be too serious.

There were quite a few odd moments in the match, most of which involved Mr. Pawson.  The referee did not make Cash go off at the nearest point when he was being subbed, probably because of the crowd’s reaction to his presence.  There was also only one minute of added time at the end of the first half, after a goal which Villa celebrated for a long time and the time-wasting they employed.  Stopping the game when Rogers went down (on one of many occasions) worked in Tottenham’s favour, as we scored soon after, but there wasn’t really a good reason to break up play like that.

For Spurs, Solanke ran his legs off and richly deserved his two goals after not having had the greatest of service over the last couple of matches.  Kulusevski was at the heart of all that was good about Tottenham; constantly twisting and turning and finding angles for passes that would hurt Villa. And then there was the Son/Richarlison/Maddison position, with the Spurs skipper and his replacement and his replacement’s replacement all playing a key role in making the second half performance so impressive.  That showed that Ange isn’t afraid to make substitutions that will affect the game, rgardless who the player is.  Special mention should also go to Radu Dragusin, who read the game well and is showing greater composure with each match and to Ben Davies, whose experience was vital when Romero went off and made the challenge that started the move for the second goal.

Credit where it’s due, McGinn did say that the way Spurs played meant that Villa couldn’t cope with them and that the crowd were the loudest he had heard, while Emery said that he would accept the result.  Very magnanimous of him !  Spurs had done their best to ruin the Villa manager’s 53rd birthday and post-match, the point made by Postecoglou in the press conference about Matt Wells making a speech to the team in the week before the game about the effect that Ugo Ehiogu had on his career as a young coach with the club before the former Villa player died, showed the high regard that Ugo was held in at Tottenham and what a loss he was to the game.  He would have been celebrating a birthday a year younger than Emery on the day and the memory of a true football man showed a bit of class by the club and the effect of his coaching on lives on through young players careers across the leagues. 

The games are coming thick and fast ahead of the international break and a trip to Turkey on Thursday will be a test if we are without any more injured players.  Then a home match at home to Ipswich, who will be fighting for every point, so it won’t be as straightforward as it looks on paper, so the mentality shown in the second half here will need to be repeated throughout both games.

East Stan

NOTES : –  Dick Emery was a popular UK comedian in the 1970s who shares the same name as the Aston Villa manager.
Count von Count was a counting vampire puppet on US kids show Sesame Street who bears an uncanny resemblance to the Aston Villa manager.

• James Maddison scores his 50th career Premier League goal.
• Tottenham’s win after conceding first was their eighth and equalled a Premier League record in a calendar year.
• Both teams wore black armbands to honour the dead in the Valencia flood disaster.
• Both teams had poppy symbols on their shirts ahead of Remembrance Sunday next week.