London: With a goal in each half, Aston Villa inflicted injury-ravaged Tottenham’s third consecutive defeat in the Premier League and in the process moved into the top-four, just two points off the top, of the league table as contenders for Champions League qualification.
Not getting carried away with their position, Villa manager, Unai Emery, said: “There are seven teams who are contenders more than us. While we are there we are going to try to enjoy it and keep it. We can get confidence from games like this.”
He added: “It’s 38 games, we have to show consistency. We are in a good position but not a contender. But while we are there we have to try to keep it. We have to be happy, we have to enjoy it and be demanding as well.”
The game began in the most entertaining and attacking display by Tottenham who had chances of being two up in the first five minutes. A shot from Dejan Kulusevski hit a post and Destiny Udogie’s shot went over the bar when he was clean through from a pass by Pedro Porro. Villa too missed chances in that early stage when Matty Cash miscued within the first minute and Pau Torres headed wide.
Midway through the first half Tottenham opened the scoring with Giovani Lo Celso scoring his first Premier League goal in three years following a corner. His shot from the edge of the box, took a deflection from the right knee of Diego Carlos, wrong-footing the goalkeeper.
Within a minute of it, Ollie Watkins thought he had levelled the score with a header from Lucas Digne’s cross but VAR ruled him off side while three scoring shots from Heung-Min Son were ruled out for offside.
The equaliser for the visitors came in the seventh minute of the first half’s added time. A freekick from Douglas Luiz was met in the penalty area by Torres and his firm header at the near post beat Emiliano Martinez.
Villa nearly scored again just the break when substitute Leon Bailey’s shot went against the post through the hands of Guglielmo Vicario but the goalkeeper gratefully grabbed the rebound. However, Villa struck ten minutes later with the winning goal when from a combined move with substitute Youri Tielemans, Watkins drove in a shot for his 12th goal of the season.
Spurs came close to an equaliser with five minutes remaining. Porro had a shot against the post and Son’s shot found the net but he was ruled off side.
Spur’s manager, Ange Postecoglou said: “The outcome is obviously disappointing but I thought they did a fantastic job in playing the football we want. Any other day it is a game we win comfortably but it’s a fine margin in football”.
He added: “We’ll get through this as long as we show the same intent. If we keep playing in that manner when we get everyone back (from injuries) we are going to be a pretty good football side.”
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