London: Dominic Solanke, Tottenham Hotspur’s record signing of £65m in the summer, struck twice in a space of four minutes to see his side emerge 4-1 winners against Aston Villa. The win puts Spurs within two points of the top-four in the Premier League, a position that qualifies for European Champion’s League.
Spurs manager, Ange Postecoglou, whose side lost to Crystal Palace last week in a dismal performance, believes this year’s race for fourth could well involve more teams compared to last season when Spurs lost out to Villa to qualify. He said: “You don’t fall off cliffs and you don’t climb mountains within a week. We are going to have bumps along the way.”
He added: “It’s how you address them, how you cope with them, how you rebound and learn from them. It looks like there’s more congestion in terms of the field. The table is only important for me at the end of the year. While we’re running in the race, I don’t like looking either side of me.”
The first half hour of the game was somewhat bland and Aston Villa frustrated their opponents by slowing the game down while Spurs lacked deep penetration in their rare attacking moves. Villa took the lead following a 32nd minute corner when Spurs defender Pedro Porro’s miscued header was hurriedly parried by his own goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario. The rebound went to Morgan Rogers, directly in front of the goal, to drive in a shot.
Spurs came out for the second-half looking a different side after being booed off at the break. They were now lively and with a sense of urgency. It took them just four minutes to draw level when Heung-Min Son, returning after a two-game absence with a hamstring injury, sent a beautiful cross for Brenan Johnson to shoot inside the back post for his seventh goal of the season.
Son was substituted in the 56th minute much to his surprise and obvious disappointment showing on his face. Having taken control and keeping much of the pressure on Villa in their quest to take the lead, the home side scored in the 75th minute. Dejan Kulusevski sent a lovely pass to the unmarked Solanke who dinked the ball over an advancing Emiliano Martinez.
Four minutes later, Solanke doubled his effort. It came with Pau Torres gifting the ball to Pape Matar Sarr who put in a through pass to Richarlson and Solanke was ready to tap in the low cross from Richarlson.
Finally, in the sixth minute of the 10-minute added time, James Maddison’s brilliant curling free-kick left Martinez standing. It was his 50th Premier League goal and the ninth from a direct free-kick since his debut in 2018.
Villa manager, Unai Emery, said: “We are disappointed, frustrated, but we are accepting it. We know our way, it is 38 matches, the league is very tight. To lose 4-1 is a tough result but the match we played was more or less in line with the expectation I had.”
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
