Good news, everyone! (No, seriously — it really is good!) Pedro Porro is back and is available to play for Tottenham Hotspur’s match at Aston Villa on Sunday. Ange Postecoglou confirmed the news in his regular injury update video on Twitter, and again during his pre-match press conference at Hotspur way today.
That’s really exciting. Porro had missed Spurs’ last two matches as he recovered from a knock picked up in training after Spurs’ loss to Wolves a few weeks ago. Should he start, it would mean Tottenham will play their first choice defensive line for what feels like (but actually isn’t) the first time in ages. It’s not that Emerson Royal has been poor as Porro’s replacement — he really hasn’t. It’s just that Spurs have missed Porro’s dynamism on the ball and deep passing ability, things that could really have an impact against a Villa side that like Spurs plays with a high line with space behind.
The news isn’t so good for Richarlison and the rest of Tottenham’s injured players. Ange confirmed that Richy, Manor Solomon, Ryan Sessegnon, and Fraser Forster are still “in recovery” and will not feature. Richarlison’s absence very likely means another start for Timo Werner, who played well in Tottenham’s 3-1 win over Crystal Palace last weekend, scoring his first goal for the club. In his press conference, Ange Postecoglou stated how much of an impact he’s had since joining the club on loan with an option to buy this January.
“I think he’s been really important. You can only imagine if we didn’t bring him in in January, it would have been a much bigger burden on the other players in the group. Particularly when Sonny was away as well. We threw him in straight away. And when you come in in January, especially for someone like Timo, standing as a mature player, he’s not a young player we’ve brought in to develop, we’re bringing him in to make an impact, and I think he has made an impact for us.
“I do think there’s more to come from him for sure. He’s working hard in training. I think his performances are improving. I thought last week was probably his best performance, aside from his goal, I thought it was his best performance for us. That’s great for us. It’s also helped guys like Brennan Johnson and Kulusevski and others, like I said, the burden would have been pretty big on those guys if we hadn’t brought Timo in.”
Spurs’ win last weekend was thanks to a late comeback after going down 1-0 to Palace in the second half. Postecoglou was asked about Spurs’ tendency to undergo “sluggish starts” in league play, and as he so often does, Ange pushed back on the premise of the question.
“I get it, it’s kind of interesting when you take a snapshot. But I reckon we’ve had it all this year: We’ve scored early, we’ve scored late. We’ve conceded early, we’ve conceded late. We’ve scored from set pieces, we’ve conceded from set pieces. We’ve defended well, we’ve not defended well. Mate, it’s just a season of football, particularly for a team like us which is very much trying to build something.
“Trends for me are something which happen over a longer period of time and something which become endemic. I see absolutely no difference between winning 3-1 and scored three goals in the first 15 minutes than scoring three goals in the last 15 minutes. For some reason, it seems to be more convincing if you score early and are comfortable after that whereas if you score late it tends to navigate towards you having a struggle. But if you look at trends historically, from the first year I managed, all my teams score late goals. It’s sort of the game model. So if anything that’s tilting towards more of the team we want to be.”
Sunday’s match is considered a “six pointer” with Aston Villa currently in fourth, five points ahead of Spurs but with a game in hand. Villa have lost only twice at home this season, a record that includes wins over Arsenal and Manchester City. Postecoglou was asked about Unai Emery’s squad and the challenge they face on Sunday.
“Yeah very [impressed]. Even last year, from when Unai came in, he’s got a track record of building really strong teams. You can see that, they’ve got a clear identity, they understand what they need to do on a weekly basis. The players they have bought in, really suit the way the manager wants to play. They’ve been hugely impressive. As you say, their home form, but just in general again, another team that is competitive every game, so you know it’s going to be a tough one. Great for us, looking forward to it, it’s a big game, particularly away from home. Good test for us. I thought we were good last week, we were really pleased with our performance in general last week and hopefully we can build on that.”
Aston Villa vs. Tottenham Hotspur kicks off this Sunday at 9:00 a.m. ET / 1:00 p.m. BST. Remember, American viewers — Daylight Savings Time starts in the USA this Sunday as well, so don’t forget to change your clocks. There will be only a four-hour difference between EDT and GMT until the UK enters BST on March 31.