Villa won at Spurs as Dave Woodhall looks forward.
Villa always seem to judge ourselves against Spurs, probably because they’re the most susceptible of the Sky Six and therefore the one we feel most-hard done to that they get so much more favourable attention than we do.
The comparisons were even greater as Saturday’s match came into view. Both clubs overhauled their squads during the summer; Spurs spent heavily despite two successive relegation battles while Villa had to watch the pennies despite recent successes.
Therefore it was no real surprise that as the game kicked off both teams were a lot closer to the bottom of the table than to the top. Villa because injuries have played their usual havoc and made the job of integrating so many new signings much harder, Spurs because they’re Spurs.
Unai continued with his tried and tested approach to gradually integrating new signings – Johan Manzambi started, João Gomes was back after suspension and Aaron Wan-Bissaka kept his place while Emiliano Buendia replaced George Hemmings. However, it was Zion Suzuki who was probably busier than all of them, making several good saves as Spurs spent the first forty-five minutes well on top.
But as we’ve seen many times at Villa Park, when a team in trouble doesn’t make the most of their opportunities supporters get anxious, players become nervous and for all their domination in that first forty-five, once they were up Villa won the ball, Boubacar Kamara laid it off and Manzambi gave Villa the lead.
Spurs had been down to ten men at that point and you could feel sorry for them – we’ve all been there in situations like this and their feeling that the world’s against them intensified on the hour when they finally scored their first Premier League goal for an eternity only for it to be ruled offside.
You could feel sorry for them, but they’re Spurs and the sheer joy of the moment got even better seven minutes later when Nicolas Jackson brought down the ball to score a classic target man’s goal.
Then on 79 Emiliano Buendia scored a typical mercurial genius’s goal from twenty-five yards out. That was the game won and all there was now was to see out the rest of the match, make a few substitutions to run down the clock and await the reaction of what few Spurs supporters would be remaining at the final whistle.
The ones who had left early missed that opening Premier League goal and it was followed by their second, from a free-kick that should never have been given. Fortunately there was barely time to kick off again and Villa’s first three points were in the bag.
It was also Villa’s third win in four games, which isn’t bad for a club supposedly in crisis. The two late goals were annoying but with Villa’s first-choice back four out they were perhaps understandable. Yet again Unai’s team selection was spot on and the players who came on were as good as those they replaced. Villa are going into the international break on a high and once more the future looks limitless.
