Aston Villa (Home) 19.09.2026

Many fans had decided they had seen enough when Buendia scored his regulation spectacular goal against us … another where our players fail to smell the danger and don’t close down opponents down outside the box, so they missed the first goals Tottenham scored this season, but it was futile, as we were three down by then and Villa should have been home and hosed.  The goals will not paper over the cracks that the result exposes, as the period of dominance failed to be turned into goals and for all the talk of Spurs being fragile, it might have been interesting to see how Villa would have responded had one of our chances gone in.

The afternoon had started with the grand-daughter of club founder and first goal-scorer Bobby Buckle appearing on his behalf and Chris Hughton, Jenna Schillaci and Ledley King being inducted into the Spurs Hall of Fame.  While this is an honourable institution, it has very little meaning in real life and Non-Executive Chairman Peter Charrington took centre stage when it was really about those who had made significant contributions to the club.  The only way this would be a tribute to those players inducted into the Hall of Fame is if there is a physical embodiment of the Hall of Fame in perhaps a Club Museum.  I am at a loss to explain why this had failed to materialise despite it being mentioned for well over 40 years and the redevelopment of the ground would have been an ideal moment to make space for it, but instead all we got was an art gallery, with a hotel, climbing wall and plaza to come among the social housing in the Park Lane.  Chelsea fans always go on about the fact that they haven’t got a history, but ours is disappearing as the club vigorously chase the pound in your (or anyone’s) pocket rather than look at what others have done that is worth far more celebrating.  A museum would be a money maker although not on the scale the cub might like but if you have people travelling for games, stadium tours or any of the other non-footballing activities at the ground, the museum might extend the time spent in and around the THS.  I enjoy visiting museums of other clubs when on holiday and there are usually a good size group being shown around.   

When the football began it was unusual to see Tottenham attacking the Park Lane in the first half and unusual to see us stringing passes together in a confident fashion.  We won the first of our 11 corners in the match in the fourth minute, but like most of them, it landed on the head of the first man, with many of the others finding Mings’ head.  In fact our final pass was lacking for much of the game and that killer pass is what we need to create clear chances to score.  Too many crosses and pull-backs failed to pick out a white shirt and that inhibited our ability to get more efforts on target.

Wan-Bissaka wiped out Marmoush off the ball but play went on for Savio to have two goes at goal, with Suzuki keeping both out, then Manzambi pulled a low save out of Toni Kinsky with a shot before a scrappy bit of play where both teams gave the ball away ended with Pedro Porro going down and pummelling the turf in the 15th minute.  He had physios tending him to him for a few minutes before he left the pitch.  Archie Gray replaced him and almost came up with a goal straight away.  Savio slipped a ball into the right side of the box and Gray, from a narrow angle fizzed a shot on target, but the keeper getting a touch on it as it went under him to take it off for a corner.  That was cleared, but Spurs kept the ball alive and Savio hit a volley with full force and Suzuki dived right to push the ball away.  Then it was Kinsky’s turn to make a stop, getting down low to the foot of his left had post to save Buendia’s shot.

Tottenham’s pressure was forcing corners, but the delivery from them was poor, then, right on 45 minutes, a soft free-kick gave Villa the opportunity to flood the box and while Micky headed it away, he got caught and left with a bleeding cheek from Mings’ contact.  After a long spell of attention, he had to go off and then move to the side-line as the ref wouldn’t let him stand behind the goal. 

When Rodrigo Bentancur had to fill in at centre-half because Micky had to leave the field after receiving treatment for a cut to his cheek, he headed away a lofted ball into the Spurs box.  The ball was running out for a corner, but Robertson tried to prevent it by sliding to keep the ball in play, probably mindful that we were missing our tallest player if it had gone off.  This only presented it to McGinn, who pulled it back to Camara, who dragged his shot across the six yard line and Manzambi was there to put the ball over the line.  To say that it was against the run of play would have been a massive understatement.

Before added time ended, Fernandes got into the box and Gomes gave him a nudge in the back.  That put him off balance and he topped his shot which went sideways.  All this nonsense about a high bar in the penalty area doesn’t mean that if a foul affects the action of the victim, it is a free-kick anywhere else, so why not in the box ?  No wonder we never get a penalty.

Cue the now commonplace half-time booing from the South Stand, ignoring the performance in the first 45 minutes that had probably been our best of the season.

Into the second half, Mo Kudus replaced Fernandes and **** Matty Cash came on for Villa, as Wan-Bissaka failed to appear for the restart, which was odd as he had been one of the better Villa players.  Jackson picked up a yellow card within a minute for stopping Spurs taking a free-kick and when he was played through, Kinsky rushed out to meet him and having blocked his shot, took a hip to the head.  Jackson again shot too high when he got into a good position, although Spurs did find the net on the hour at the other end.  From Kinsky’s throw out, the ball was worked through midfield, then forward before coming back again to Tonali, whose pass inside McGinn allowed Robertson to get in behind him and slide the ball into the six yard box.  Suzuki got a touch on it, the ball hit Dom in front of the line, but Kudus was there to put it in the net to give Spurs their first league goal of the season.  Only it wasn’t, as Robertson ahd gone a little too soon and was offside, so back to square one..

Sours fans got excited when James Maddison was brought on in place of Solanke, but the substitution was immediately followed by a second Villa goal.  A long hoof down the pitch was allowed to bounce and Villa got the ball to Manzambi, he hooked it on to Jackson, who flicked it wide of van de Ven and his bobbling shot squeaked past Kinsky with the keeper getting a hand to it, but it went in off his right hand post.  Spurs now had to score two to get anything from the game … which looked unlikely.

Tonali’s curling shot with twenty minutes left was the closest Spurs came to breaking the deadlock but it went wide.  So, when Buendia got the ball 25 yards out nine minutes later, he lined the shot up, pulled the trigger and Toni was beaten high to his right with the second long range effort finding out net in two matches.  Gomes ran too easily past three Spurs players before passing to McGinn, who fed the ball to Buendia in a central position, with no Spurs player closing him down.  All too easy.

Villa made subs and Gallagher and Bergvall came off the bench for us to take the place of Bentancur and Tonali.  They livened things up and worked hard to win the ball and then lay it off.  Bergvall’s ball wide right won a throw and then another, which Archie took quickly, catching Ruggieri out of position.  Kudus got tackled and then he and Archie worked hard to win the ball back, with Mo taking on Lindelof after receiving a return pass from Marmoush and he pulled the ball back into the six yard box for Conor Gallagher to put the ball over the line from a couple of years out which was our first League goal of the season.

In his usual crude style, Cash hacked down Savio on the left, just wide of the box and Emery got a yellow for his antics on the touchline.  The fact that he continued mouthing off at the fourth official should have brought him a second yellow, but Barrott was too weak throughout the game to have the bottle to do that.  Maddison had a go at goal from the free-kick which was on target, but the keeper pushed it out although Kudus slashed the loose ball high and wide on the volley.

In what surprisingly became a bit of a late thrust, Micky headed just wide from a corner, before a free-kick left of centre, 25 yards outside the box for a foul by Hemmings gave Robertson the chance to centre the ball and coming in behind the massed ranks of players in the middle, van Hecke headed it down across the keeper to beat his dive to the right.  It was a well-worked free-kick at last, but all too late to matter other then to keep our goal difference a little better than it might have been.  

Savio was well played by Ruggieri, which restricted his supply, especially in the second half, but when we shifted the ball quickly, with players moving around, there seemed like the semblance of understanding.  At other times, the team were not in tune as the wavelength each of them were on was not the same.  The frustrating thing was the simple passes that were not completed, handing possession to Villa which then had to be hard won back.  Quite often the movement to provide options for the man on the ball was not forthcoming, meaning that possession was again lost, as Spurs players got crowded out.  Lots of basic things are wrong with our game as well as having to adapt to De Zerbi’s way of playing.  With a selection of two from three tall central defenders, the ball still is allowed to bounce rather than attacked and that lets opposing forwards have a run on it instead of the positive move from the defenders to get it clear.  This was stuff I was taught at school.

There has always been a softness to the Tottenham side.  Yes, Romero provided some physicality, but in the wrong way.  We don’t get in people’s faces and while it has been said before, when we do, it inevitably leads to cards being waved at Tottenham players.  The ease in which Jackson scored was shocking and he showed his ability in the first half by wildly missing a couple of good chances, so should not have been allowed to be in the position to score the goal after Manzambi manoeuvred the ball to him.  The snide tackles (widely proclaimed as “good fouls” by those ex-professionals who do punditry) are not in this club’s vocabulary, which I am proud about because we play the game the right way, but when other clubs get away with them, why would it be that our players get yellow cards for their first innocuous foul ?  We saw Camara and Gomes commit “tactical” fouls and escape punishment and them Hemmings came on and did two within a couple of minutes, but van Hecke’s tackle on Jackson missed the ball but was made a meal of with the naïve ref buying it to book him.  Maybe it is our belief in playing the Tottenham Way that makes any tackle we put in look bad.  Perhaps refs see Tottenham differently to other clubs.  I am fairly certain that if Bruno Fernandes kick in Foden’s back last week in the Mancashter derby had been committed by a Spurs player they wouldn’t have escaped unpunished.  

Spurs topped almost every metric in the match, except the one that counts.  The score-line at the end of the match.

• Jan Paul van Hecke scores his first Tottenham goal.