UNAI EMERY’s spell over Thomas Frank continued thanks to stunners from Aston Villa marksmen Morgan Rogers and Emiliano Buendia that deflated Tottenham.
Spurs boss Frank must have thought he would finally get one over the Spanish tactician on his sixth attempt when Rodrigo Bentancur celebrated the imminent arrival of a new baby with a decent opener.
Yet Rogers restored parity in this contest with an outstanding strike that might spark life into an otherwise subdued start to the season.
And then sixteen minutes after he came on to the pitch, Buendia benefited from some excellent work by teammates Matty Cash and Luca Digne to give Villa a FIFTH successive win.
Emery always gets the better of his Danish counterpart in the Premier League and this will go down thus far as Villa’s best result of the campaign.
It is the life of a coach that you spend all week meticulously planning your coaching drills and tactical plans – and then it is all thrown up in the air in the minutes before kick-off.
Fifteen minutes before skipper Cristian Romero was due to lead out the side into combat, it was announced he had injured himself in the warm-up in the driving rain in North London.
It is a nightmare when that sort of thing happens but returning into London from the United States only a few days previously could not have helped his body.
The Argentine defender had been an unused sub for the 6-0 thrashing of Puerto Rico last Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale and club chiefs organised a private jet for him to return ASAP to their training HQ.
Austrian Kevin Danso took his spot in the side while Micky van de Ven wore the club armband.
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Any frustrations Frank would have felt over that untimely situation were soon forgotten when he was jumping for joy as his side took a fifth-minute lead.
The first corner of the contest was cleared out to Mohammed Kudus and his long, inswinging delivery found Joao Palhinha at the back post.
The Portuguese star sought out his central midfielder partner Bentancur and his half-volley, aided by a deflection off Amadou Onana, was guided beyond world champion goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.
The Uruguayan, 28, celebrated with the ball up his jersey and a thumb in his mouth to herald his wife’s second pregnancy.
It was also particularly special for him given that Cash was in the opposing line-up and unable to prevent the goal.
It was in November 2023 that Bentancur was sidelined for a lengthy period after he was on the wrong end of a crunching tackle by Cash, not long only after he had just returned from some time out.
Football fans have very long memories and it was no great surprise Cash was routinely booed whenever he was in possession.
When Cash dragged a right-footed strike wide of the post on 15 minutes, home punters certainly laughed at that one.
Cash was also getting twisted blood as he tried to cope with the twisting, turning and trickery of Wilson Odobert, who had claims waved away for a first-half penalty when his shirt was pulled by Onana.
As the rain hammered down, the atmosphere inside the Tottenham Stadium was rather quiet compared to normal and they were even quieter come 37 minutes.
Rogers – who had been crunched by Van de Ven in one hefty challenge – scored his first club of the season with a sensational right-footed attempt from outside of the area.
Perhaps Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario was unsighted and in the wrong position to start with but it was still a brilliantly struck strike.
Minutes into the second half and left back Digne was receiving treatment as he was clattered into by Danso.
Some would say it would have been a foul elsewhere on the pitch and Digne wriggled around in pain but Danso did get to the ball first.
Martinez then made a double save, first pushing wide a shot from Palhinha and then blocking a header from the offside Bentancur.
Those saves proved vital as on 77 minutes, Cash hit an outstanding long pass to Digne, whose first touch was to control, his second was a moment of improvisation to flick the pass to Buendia.
The Argentine magnificently completed the turnaround with a third goal in four appearances as Emery once more had bragging rights over Frank.