It had all looked so good for Tottenham Hotspur and Thomas Frank after five minutes.
They flew out of the traps to take a 1-0 lead through Rodrigo Bentancur but that was as good as it got for Spurs. Lovely goals from Morgan Rogers and Emiliano Buendia turned the game on its head to inflict a second defeat of the season on the home team.
For much of the first half, Spurs had been good value for their lead, but Rogers equalised in the 37th minute with a brilliant right-foot shot from 25 yards — only the sixth league goal Guglielmo Vicario has conceded this season.
Villa grew into the game from there, edging what became a scrappy second half and deservedly taking the lead when Buendia bent a shot beyond Vicario in the 77th minute.
The Athletic’s Elias Burke analyses the action.
A return to fast starts for Frank?
His sides don’t tend to hang around. Since the start of the 2024-25 season, teams managed by Frank have scored more goals in the opening five minutes than any club in the Premier League.
Five of those were at Brentford, but against Villa, Frank brought that lightning start to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the first time. It was evident from the European Super Cup in August that Frank would place more emphasis on set pieces than his predecessor, Ange Postecoglou, and they have continued to be threatening from corners and free kicks.
It was no surprise, then, that Bentancur opened his account for the season after the ball had been recycled from a corner.
Bentancur, who signed a contract extension days before Tottenham’s 2-1 win against Leeds United last time out, profited from a smart header across the box from Joao Palhinha, converting on the volley from eight yards out.
And for U.S. readers
It is Tottenham’s earliest goal of the league season. Flying out of the blocks is a trait of Frank’s sides — it was a shame they retreated so much after Rogers’ equaliser.
What happened after Spurs’ ideal opening?
When they go ahead under Frank, Tottenham tend to stay there. Even after Leeds had equalised, they rebounded in the second half to take the lead and win the game. While it was hardly a collapse, Tottenham let their ascendancy slip against Villa.
Like the 1-0 home win against Villarreal in the Champions League, Tottenham went ahead early and sat on it. Being effective and efficient from set pieces is an important string for any top side to have, but their lack of creativity on the ball — Xavi Simons was largely absent — meant Spurs were over-reliant on crafting opportunities from dead-ball situations.
Palhinha and Bentancur did an excellent job, particularly in the first half, of winning tackles in Villa’s midfield, not allowing their creative players time and space to play the ball through the heart of the pitch. But when they won the ball, setting Spurs off on the counter, Tottenham’s attackers failed to do anything with it.
There were encouraging signs of a burgeoning partnership between Wilson Odobert, Mathys Tel and Destiny Udogie, who has a minor knee injury, against Leeds, but none of that was evident against Villa.
Spurs were fortunate to escape that Villarreal game with three points, but Unai Emery’s side made their lack of attacking endeavour pay.
It marks Frank’s second home defeat at Spurs, and given the difficulty of their fixture schedule until December, it’s an untimely slip. Next up in the league are Everton, followed by Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Fulham.
How did Danso do after a late call-up?
As club captain and arguably Tottenham’s most influential player, an injury sustained in the warm-up to Cristian Romero felt like a significant pre-match blow. But with another solid performance, Kevin Danso proved he is a capable deputy.
Danso has typically performed best for Spurs as an outside defender in a back three, but he assumed Romero’s role in partnering Micky van de Ven from the right side of central defence. Aside from his world-class ability as a distributor, Spurs miss Romero’s physicality and aggressiveness in central defence most, but Danso dealt well with Donyell Malen’s pace.
In one instance in the first half, Malen, who went touch-tight with the Austria international until he was replaced on the hour by Ollie Watkins, span in behind Danso and looked to be heading towards a one-v-one opportunity with Vicario. But Danso recovered excellently, chasing back to ease the forward off the ball, ala Van de Ven.
Few can replicate Romero’s passing from defence, but Danso comes with his own weapon: a wicked long throw. He had the opportunity to use it in the second half, but Tottenham failed to capitalise when the ball broke. Overall, a positive first league start of the season, and an encouraging signal that he can step up when needed. He was not to blame for Spurs letting their lead slip.
What did Frank say?
“The way the game panned out was exactly how I expected it to — a very even game against a very good Villa team, set up well by Unai Emery, where we performed quite well. Maybe not through the roof — through the roof is totally dominating Villa. We came out with good intensity, very aggressive and were good in high pressure.
“We actually created some good opportunities and defensively, we were excellent.
“There’s a couple of things you can look into when you look defensively. We gave away, what, eight shots? We gave two goals away in a position outside the box with a lot of players behind the ball. If you said to me before the game, they will shoot from there… it’s not dangerous, but a fantastic quality shot from Rogers. So in those nothing moments or very little moments, they had more quality.”
What next for Tottenham?