I thought Tottenham Hotspur’s bad matches were supposed to come BEFORE the international break! Tottenham’s front line collectively decided they were going to do things on Hard Mode and laid an egg at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Rodrigo Bentancur opened the scoring with a fourth minute goal assisted by Joao Palhinha to put Tottenham ahead, but Villa stormed back with two outstanding goals from Morgan Rogers and substitute Emiliano Buendia, one in the back end of each half, and took all three points today in North London.
Whoof. This was a pretty disheartening match for a number of reasons, but mostly because despite Spurs actually doing a decent job of getting the ball into dangerous areas, they simply couldn’t do anything with it in the box when it mattered.
Here are my match reactions from a disappointing home loss.
Match Reactions
Overall, this is a match where the main story was that most of Tottenham’s attacking players had medicore to bad performances and then Aston Villa scored two bangers. I could call out all of the sub-par attackers by name, but is there any point? They were all various shades and flavors of bad, they all deserve criticism for it, and it bit Spurs on the rear end today.
A fourth minute goal by Rodrigo Bentancur with an assist by Joao Palhinha! Just like we all drew it up. Kudus with an excellent cross to the back post, a good header back into the box by Palhinha, and Bentancur in the right spot to hammer it home.
Villa came out pressing high straight out of the gate after Cuti Romero was replaced by Kevin Danso before kickoff. It’s the right idea, but Spurs still looked quite comfortable playing out of the back. Thought Danso played well, despite a yellow and stepping on two Villa ankles.
Look I may not especially like this particular Tottenham Hotspur midfield with him in it, but I have to admit that Joao Palhinha is just a generational talent when it comes to the skill of tackling people. He put in some absolutely world class open field tackles in this one.
Morgan Rogers. Can’t even be mad at that, it was an incredible hit. That said, there was an obvious foul on Mathys Tel in the buildup that the ref just ignored, sooooooo…
Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel showed their youth and inexperience in this one. Got plenty of space to attack behind Villa’s high line but all too frequently either failed to read the game and make the right run, or just screwed up the attack with the ball at their feet. Spurs did a great job of getting balls into Villa’s box and a terrible job at getting shots or attempts on those chances.
Rather than argue about the ref, I shall simply ask this existential question to all of you and let you talk about it: What even is a handball? Discuss.
You can see the general shape of what Frank is asking his players to do to get the ball through midfield and into Villa’s area, but the attack just seemed to stall practically every time they got the ball into the box. A few good attacks got saved or blocked in the early part of the second half, but a lot more that just fizzled. I hope it means that the attackers were just bad today, and not that Spurs have bad attackers, but man.
I thought the introduction of Kolo Muani and Brennan Johnson might change the match, but they both came on far too late and after Spurs were already down a goal for them to have any sort of meaningful impact.
Spurs need to pick themselves up and dust themselves off and quickly, because they have a tough Champions League match to play at Monaco this coming Wednesday followed by a trip to Merseyside to play a resurgent Everton in their new stadium.
Go out and pet a dog or something. You’ll feel better.