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Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa: predicted line-up, team news and match preview

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Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa: predicted line-up, team news and match preview - avillafan.com
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The world’s most famous football team will play their first Premier League fixture after the October international break when they visit Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon.

Aston Villa are the talk of the town. The local authorities banned away supporters from an upcoming home fixture in the Europa League and the United Kingdom’s most senior politicians have been moving heaven and earth to undo a decision that should never have had to be made and wasn’t made by Villa anyway.

Shame on you, Keir Starmer. Kemi Badenoch, you are the lowest of the low but we already knew that. Tim Farron, Ed Davey, Lisa Nandy and all the others who’ve dragged the name of my football club through the mud to score cheap political points, I see you. We all see you. You’ve made it worse and put it back on the table. Bravo, morons.

Henry Winter, I’m willing to bet any money you like that these developments do not in fact mean that Tottenham Hotspur supporters will also be banned from Villa Park in May. The idea that your garbage article invoking as much was apolitical is laughable.

This furore is on UEFA. If the decision is reversed and the Europa League match in question is played in front of away supporters, the consequences and repercussions belong not to Aston Villa, West Midlands Police or the city of Birmingham, but to the politicians who mobilised faster to overrule the Safety Advisory Group than they would for a natural disaster in their own damned constituencies.

But none of this is supposed to be Villa’s problem. Our football club exists to play football and we can, hopefully, turn the volume down a couple of notches on Sunday afternoon and get on with our lives for a bit.

Any idea who Villa are playing this weekend, Henry?

Anyway, back to the football…

In the penultimate Premier League fixture of 2024/25, Villa beat Spurs 2-0 at Villa Park. There was a distinct lack of intensity because of the relative situations of the two clubs and the next matches for Spurs and Villa, both against Manchester United, came to define the entire shape of this season.

Spurs beat United in the Europa League final and qualified for the Champions League despite being abject almost all season domestically.

Villa lost at Old Trafford in the last league match, missed out on the Champions League and ended up being kicked around as a political football by mouth-breathing politicians with no concept whatsoever of the game.

Ange Postecoglou didn’t survive into the new season and was replaced by Thomas Frank, who has a poor record against Unai Emery but isn’t in charge of Brentford anymore and will fancy his chances of capitalising on the fact that Villa, despite improvements, are yet to hit the high notes this season.

Postecoglou obviously achieved a number of big results on the way to the sack and Spurs’ defeat of Villa in this fixture last November was among the most emphatic. Villa won the two previous meetings at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The teams are ten places apart in the Premier League table but are both unbeaten in four games. There’s no doubt Villa will be the underdogs on Sunday but something tells me that’s a status we’re going to have to get used to again for a while.

Villa team news

Emery told the press on Friday that striker Ollie Watkins is expected to be fit enough to play at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday after picking up a knock while colliding with the post in England’s win against Latvia on Tuesday night.

The manager also said that Emi Buendía will be available for selection after Zian Flemming elbowed him in the head before the international break, and Jadon Sancho is in contention again having recovered from a pretty significant bout of illness.

Tyrone Mings is close to a return but won’t be back in time for Sunday’s game. Youri Tielemans is likely to miss the rest of the month and more as a result of his injury setback. There’s no word on the progress or otherwise of Andrés García.

Amadou Onana, who was a late substitute against Burnley before the international break, played for Belgium last week and is available again for Villa.

Villa predicted line-up v Spurs

After a fine performance and two goals against Burnley, Donyell Malen will be expecting to start. Spurs will be expecting him to start. If this were a home, game, I’d be expecting him to start too.

But Emery has laughed at our expectations enough times already this season to suggest that even winning a match almost single-handedly doesn’t trump the team’s tactical requirements on any given day.

Emery could keep John McGinn in midfield with either Onana or Lamare Bogarde in order to keep Malen in the side but I can see him wanting all three of them on the field on Sunday.

Villa should otherwise be largely unchanged. After a slow start, the team is in reasonable form and Emery will look to supplement that with some tactical solidity against Spurs.

What I expect to see, whichever specific personnel are selected, is a starting line-up that looks like it would struggle to break down Brentford or ten-man Sunderland but will appear rather more dangerous against opponents bearing the onus to go and win the game.

Where to watch Spurs v Villa

Villa’s away game against Spurs will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League in the UK.

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