It was a miserable, grey, drizzly day in Birmingham as Tottenham Hotspur faced off against Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday. Good weather for a Champions League qualifying six-pointer? Villa were coming off of a midweek away draw against Ajax in the Europa Conference League, but had managed to get through the match without a ton of excess wear on their best players. It looked to be a stormer of a match.
It turned out to be not that. After a cagy first half that ended scoreless with Spurs only managing one shot despite the majority of possession, things opened up significantly in the second half. Tottenham got two quick-fire goals in three minutes early in the second half, first from James Maddison off of a lovely cross from Pape Sarr, and then from Brennan Johnson after Spurs’ press forced a turnover in Villa’s half to put Spurs ahead. Villa’s John McGinn got a straight red card for taking out Destiny Udogie, and Tottenham poured on the offense from that point on.
Spurs added injury time goals from Son Heung-Min and Timo Werner and the match finished with a resounding 4-0 away win.
Ange Postecoglou made three changes from the team that beat Crystal Palace last weekend. Pedro Porro returned from injury to start ahead of Emerson Royal at right inverted wingback, while Pape Sarr and Brennan Johnson were preferred to Rodrigo Bentancur and Timo Werner, both of whom were on the bench. Son started at central forward in place of the injured Richarlison.
Here are my match reactions from what turned out to be an absolute thumping.
Match reactions
- Matty Cash got booed by the away Spurs fans the first time he touched the ball. That was fun.
- Interestingly, Unai Emery started the match off by tweaking his lineup, moving to a 5-3-2 and adding another central defender to guard against Tottenham’s offensive threat. They spent a lot of effort man-marking James Maddison to reduce his effectiveness and daring Spurs’ other midfielders to beat them.
- For the most part, Villa’s first half tactics were effective, as Maddison couldn’t get space to operate and Bissouma wasn’t convincing with his passing. It’s starting to feel like Tottenham need to move on one of either Bissouma or Rodrigo Bentancur this summer for a deep-lying playmaker with a wider range of passing.
- The big matchup to watch in this match was Villa’s in-form striker Ollie Watkins and Micky van de Ven, one of the fastest defenders in the league and it was an exciting one. Those two went after each other all day, and Micky had an outstanding match until he was forced off early in the second.
- We’ve been asking for a dribbly winger all year and suddenly in this match Brennan Johnson started doing just that. He had 3 successful dribbles in the first half and looked dynamic playing on the left. As Joel said in the chat, “Did Brennan go to dribbling school?” Got another goal and looked like a switch has flipped in his head. Added a late goal as well. Quite possibly his best-ever match for us.
- For all the possession Spurs had, the good passing, the interplay, the way they worked the ball into the box, Tottenham didn’t manage a single shot until Johnson’s attempt at the near post in the 43rd minute. That’s bad! But Villa only had five in that same span, none on target. A real defensive battle, and yet still compelling to watch.
- Tottenham’s defense was very good in this match but Cuti Romero was somewhat loose in possession. He gave the ball away cheaply on a couple of occasions in the first half that led to Villa counters. He settled down in the second half and had a very solid performance overall.
- It felt like Villa could’ve been broken down earlier if Spurs had players who could ping balls over the top from deep positions. Can we mind-meld Cuti Romero with Toby Alderwiereld?
- Maddison’s goal was well finished, but Pape Sarr did such incredible work to not only progress the ball into space but also put in an excellent cross. That was a very well worked counter-attack goal with Spurs’ first shot on target.
- Spurs’ second goal was a good finish from Johnson after a good press forced a terrible pass from Konsa. Good of Sonny to see who was open and make the correct pass. It’s lovely to see Spurs’ press creating chances.
- It hurts losing Van de Ven again (hope he’s ok) but we at least got our first real look at Radu Dragusin. He’s a different player from Micky but held his own quite well, though admittedly that’s an easier job when Spurs are up 2-0 in the second half. Stupid yellow card though.
- The red card on McGinn was the clearest decision you’ll see all weekend. No intent to play the ball, just took Destiny Udogie out and might have injured him as well. Bye, John. Thanks for the karmic rebalancing of Matty Cash.
- Son had a pretty quiet and understated match but when he gets the ball wide open at the top of the box like that you know he’s going to bury it. Ends with a goal and an assist.
- Ange Postecoglou has talked about how he doesn’t care where the goals come, just that they do. This would seem to be further proof of the effectiveness of his tactics. Spurs kept doing what they do and eventually the goals came.
- Spurs ended the match with 70% possession and an xG advantage of 0.97 – 1.63.
- You have to think that with the win Spurs are now in the driver’s seat, at least for now, for fourth place and an automatic Champions League qualification spot. They’re still behind Villa but only by two points and with a match in hand. They also now have a GD advantage over Villa.
- A fantastic away win against a very good opponent, three points, and a rare clean sheet. Next two matches are away to Fulham and home to Luton, both very winnable matches. Feels good. COYS.