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12 hours ago
7
This was Tottenham’s second defeat to Aston Villa this season and it is becoming increasingly hard to imagine Thomas Frank being in charge when the teams come together a third time in May. A performance that put an end to any realistic chance of a trophy this season, it fell well below the expectations of a furious crowd. That their opponents offer the diametric opposite of Tottenham’s dysfunction can only have heightened the sting.
Goals from Emi Buendía and Morgan Rogers put this tie to bed for Villa in the first half, Wilson Odobert’s strike after half-time bringing a closeness to the scoreline that was not reflected in the general play. A scuffle on the field at the final whistle involving Rogers, João Palhinha and a host of Tottenham players only added further sourness to the occasion.
To suggest the tone of the match was set before a ball had even been kicked is an assertion that can’t necessarily be proven. But it certainly felt that way in the ground: the lack of enthusiasm among the home support, as their team took the field to nothing more than polite applause, was then matched evenly by the efforts of Tottenham’s players on the field.
Whether Frank’s charges were scared, demoralised or simply disengaged, they lacked assertiveness from the start. Nominally pressing their opponents high, it was all done politely and with barely a challenge made. Unlikely to win their duels against a snarling Villa side on the best of days, Spurs did not even try. Unai Emery’s men, meanwhile, looked in the mood and did not need an invitation to stomp all over their hosts.
When Villa opened the scoring, Boubacar Kamara had already been substituted after landing awkwardly on his ankle. Youri Tielemans came on and the mechanics of this Villa side continued to run smoothly. The Belgian played one of the three consecutive through balls that carved Spurs open in the 22nd minute, but Donyell Malen applied the twist: flicking the ball into the path of Buendía who took a touch before slamming a shot past Guglielmo Vicario. It was Buendía’s second goal against Spurs this season after deciding the Premier League fixture in October.
Conceding did not change Tottenham’s outlook. They had one moment of promise, from Xavi Simons, as he attempted to do by himself what Villa had achieved as a team, only for Randal Kolo Muani to be ruled offside after he finished Simons’ final ball. The rest was continued submission, and the loss of Richarlison to injury. The travelling fans regaled the stadium with rounds of “Tom Frank … is an Arsenal fan” in reference to the past week’s ‘cup gate’ and then, as five minutes of added time were about to be up, things got worse. Villa breezed their way into the Spurs box and a Buendía backheel found Rogers, the Villa talisman gobbling up the chance left-footed.
After boos loud enough to be heard on the Seven Sisters road, Spurs exited for half-time and returned early with a flea in their ear. Suddenly there was energy and endeavour, if not any clear patterns of play, and within 10 minutes they had a goal back. A ball up the right-hand touchline was taken in by Palhinha, who bounced off Lamare Bogarde. Kolo Muani drove the ball to the box and span it back out wide to Odobert, who had been completely forgotten by the Villa defence. The Frenchman calmly fired a low shot beyond the sprawling Marco Bizot for his second goal of the season.
To be fair to Tottenham they kept that endeavour up for another 15 minutes or so before Emery refreshed his troops and Buendía was denied a second after a goalline clearance by Micky van de Ven. There was also the succour of seeing Dominic Solanke make an appearance off the bench, his first minutes for Spurs since the 2-0 victory at Manchester City in August. But an equaliser never looked likely and, as the clock ran out, the crowd went quiet, saving their energy for a final chorus of catcalls.
