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Conor Gallagher’s display at Villa Park did not go unnoticed, with the midfielder earning strong praise from Glenn Hoddle after playing a key role in Tottenham Hotspur’s important result.

Tottenham Hotspur made it back-to-back wins for the first time this season since August with a 2-1 victory over Aston Villa at Villa Park on Sunday night.

Goals from Conor Gallagher and Richarlison proved enough for Spurs, as they secured all three points to move out of the bottom three following West Ham United’s defeat to Brentford on Saturday.

That victory also means that Tottenham have maintained their impressive record at Villa Park, having now won in nine of their last eleven visits in the Premier League.

Tottenham see Conor Gallagher praised by Glenn Hoddle after Aston Villa win

While everyone impressed against Aston Villa, there is no denying that Gallagher was the standout performer. Despite his goal, Gallagher’s underlying numbers against Unai Emery’s side show just how influential and vital he was to Spurs securing all three points.

Speaking to TNT Sports after the game, former Tottenham manager Glenn Hoddle discussed Gallagher’s importance, highlighting his work rate, pressing and ability to set the tone for the team.

He said, when asked if Gallagher is the type of player Spurs need in a scrap, “hundred per cent because he can use the ball he is not going to be a number ten but he can use the ball well, but his closing down his work rate set the tone for all the rest of the team.

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“I said before the game you look at each other in the dressing room and say I am going to be the difference today then if everyone is thinking that way they played like that.

“There was not one bad performance from Tottenham today. There were all 9/10 but Gallagher was the one that set the tone and he has ended up getting his first goal for Tottenham as well which is a great moment for him”

Spurs must avoid complacency in survival fight

Three points in the bag, a complete team performance and a move away from the relegation zone made it a perfect weekend for Tottenham.

However, Spurs will not want to become complacent, as there is still plenty of football to play and they are not yet safe.

As it stands, just one point separates Tottenham from West Ham United, meaning any slip-up and a West Ham win will see the Hammers leapfrog Spurs.

Tottenham Hotspur’s performance at Villa Park has sparked a strong reaction among supporters, with Conor Gallagher in particular drawing widespread praise after delivering exactly what was demanded.

Ahead of the clash against Aston Villa on Sunday evening, Roberto De Zerbi was adamant that his side could get a result despite the negativity surrounding his team.

The narrative from the media was that Spurs had their work cut out, given the injury crisis they were dealing with, as they were set to be without at least ten players heading to Villa Park before Pape Matar Sarr’s return.

Regardless of the injury setback, De Zerbi remained positive, maintaining his stance that he still had good players, before outlining what he expected from his team.

He said: “Keeping the ball, showing our qualities, because if we have a chance to win the game, it is because we have great players for me, and fight, run, defend everyone together, with order, with the right organisation, without the ball for sure, because we have to defend, but we have to attack and to keep the ball, and to enjoy with the ball, to try the one-to-one on the wingers’ side, to play when we have the right time and the right space between the lines, that is my idea.”

Tottenham fans react to Conor Gallagher performance vs Aston Villa

On Sunday evening, we saw exactly that from Tottenham from the start of the game until the very end – they looked like a team attacking as a unit and defending as a unit.

Each player deserves credit for that performance, but Conor Gallagher was one who stood out at Villa Park. The winter signing was all over the pitch, led the press, won duels and kept Spurs ticking as they looked to maintain control of midfield.

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His impressive display has now seen Lilywhites fans take to social media to praise him. Taking to X, one fan said: “Been waiting for him to settle. Brilliant” Another added: “This is the real Conor Gallagher! COYS”

A third fan stated: “Chased everything down, loved it. His best game for us.” One more commented, highlighting expectations: “This is what we expected from him. Hope he continues this”

Another Tottenham fan added, pointing to the difference under previous managers: “Under Frank and Tudor he was a waste of space, but played in the right position an absolute beast. Incredible really how style of play can transform a player from zero to hero.”

A final fan said: “We have a manager who knows how to unlock his skill set! Easy 9 out of 10”

Gallagher must build on strong Spurs display

Spurs Web has since looked at the underlying numbers of Gallagher, and there is a belief that De Zerbi could get the best out of the midfielder.

Gallagher is a manager’s dream, given how hard he works for the team and how he allows his side to maintain pressure high up the pitch.

However, it is only his first truly impressive display in a Tottenham shirt, and the focus now will be on building on it as Spurs continue to fight to avoid relegation.

Conor Gallagher has revealed the mindset of the Tottenham squad after the win over Aston Villa and the impact Roberto De Zerbi has had since arriving at the club.

After a long time, Spurs are now out of the bottom three, having picked up a 2-1 win at Villa Park after West Ham went down 3-0 away at Brentford on Saturday.

The results have completely changed the mood internally at Tottenham and that of their supporters, with safety now within touching distance for the club.

With Spurs hosting Leeds next Monday and the Hammers hosting Arsenal, the Lilywhites could have a massive opportunity to all but secure their place in the top-flight with one more win.

Conor Gallagher says Tottenham are keen to build on start under Roberto De Zerbi

If Conor Gallagher’s words are anything to go by, the Tottenham players realise that they are not out of the woods just yet and are keen to build on the two consecutive wins in the Midlands.

While the midfielder, who opened the scoring for Spurs at Villa Park, admitted that it was ‘a perfect night’, he made it clear that he and his teammates now want to carry on this momentum and string more wins together.

Speaking after Tottenham’s 2-1 win at Villa Park, Gallagher told TNT Sports: “It’s been the perfect night, but hopefully it’s only the start. It was a great performance tonight and we want to carry that on for the rest of the season. This is massive for us and hopefully our confidence can start growing.”

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Gallagher admits De Zerbi has instilled confidence in the Spurs squad

Ahead of his side’s trip to Villa, De Zerbi railed against those who were writing off Tottenham’s chances of survival, reiterating that his side have the quality to win matches.

The Spurs players have now repaid the faith their head coach showed in them, and Gallagher confessed that every member of the squad has really taken to the 46-year-old.

When asked about De Zerbi’s influence, the 26-year-old said: “I can’t speak highly enough of him. He’s so good. Every player in the squad has taken to him, it makes you trust him.

“It makes you feel good and confident. He’s bringing the best out of players and it’s hopefully only the start. Hopefully, we can keep learning from him and build a great team.”

Randal Kolo Muani gave Tottenham Hotspur supporters something to appreciate beyond his on-pitch display, with his actions after coming off catching the eye at Villa Park.

Randal Kolo Muani has certainly had his fair share of struggles since his loan move to Tottenham Hotspur in the summer.

He has managed just one Premier League goal, and his performances in a Lilywhite shirt have left a lot to be desired for most of his time in north London.

However, in the game against Aston Villa, we saw a different showing from the Parisian, who was direct in his play, took on his man and offered a creative outlet from the left.

He did not manage a goal, but did have a big chance in the first half after arriving at the back post to meet Mathys Tel’s cross, only for Emiliano Martinez to make the save.

Spurs fans will appreciate Randal Kolo Muani gesture after Aston Villa substitution

Spurs’ lack of a natural number ten meant that Roberto De Zerbi had to find a solution to a potential lack of creativity, which saw Tottenham look to utilise their wide players more.

Muani was impressive, rose to the occasion and delivered one of his better displays since De Zerbi took charge. He pressed high and closed down Villa players with such intensity that he had to come off after the 66th minute.

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However, Muani made sure to connect with the Tottenham fans before making his way off the pitch, and many of the travelling support will have appreciated what he did.

Following his substitution, he walked the long way around past the Spurs fans, encouraged them to raise the noise, then celebrated and high-fived those in the front row.

For a player on loan, it showed how much he cares as Spurs continue their fight to avoid the drop with three games to play.

Randal Kolo Muani’s role is key for Spurs run-in

Tottenham are short in attack, with just three fit recognised attackers to lead the line for the rest of the season.

Wilson Odobert, Dejan Kulusevski, Xavi Simons, Mohammed Kudus and Dominic Solanke have all seen their seasons ended by injury, and Spurs will have to rely on Muani.

That makes it vital for the Frenchman to find rhythm and form as Spurs look to finish the season on a high, with their destiny now in their hands.

Supporters of League One champions Lincoln City directed a funny chant at Tottenham last week, and the travelling Spurs fans at Villa Park decided to respond yesterday.

Over the past few weeks, it has felt like almost every other team in the English footballing pyramid has been hankering for Tottenham Hotspur to go down.

In fact, some Spurs fans were even starting to wonder if the referees wanted them to get relegated, given the number of big calls that were going against the Lilywhites.

It was not just Premier League rivals who wanted to see Tottenham relegated for the first time in 50 years, with EFL clubs also understandably salivating at the prospect of an away day at N17 next season.

Tottenham fans copy the fans of Lincoln supporters during win at Villa Park

Lincoln were crowned champions of League One last week, with the club achieving promotion to the second tier of English football for the first time since 1961.

During their title celebrations, both the Lincoln fans and their players could not help but be excited about the fact that they will be in the same division as Spurs, with chants of ‘Tottenham away ole ole’ ringing around the LNER Stadium.

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Interestingly, Spurs fans decided to mockingly co-opt the chant during their 2-1 win over Villa Park, which saw them move out of the drop zone.

Chants of ‘Tottenhama away ole ole’ could be heard very loudly from the travelling Spurs fans towards the end of the game.

Spurs fans cannot celebrate just yet

The mood around Tottenham has been completely transformed with the results at the bottom of the table over the last two days, which has put the Lilywhites in a strong position to stay up.

However, Roberto De Zerbi will be aware that the job is still not done, with only a point separating his side and West Ham.

The North Londoners may have a golden opportunity to put some daylight between them and the Hammers when they host Leeds next Monday, a day after Nuno Espirito Santo’s men take on Arsenal.

Unai Emery made some interesting statements about Tottenham Hotspur after watching them completely dominate his side at Villa Park on Sunday.

As expected, Villa rotated their side for the clash on Sunday, with Emery having half an eye on his side’s Europa League semi-final against Nottingham Forest.

However, not many would have expected Tottenham Hotspur to be as dominant as they were, with the home side not even laying a glove on De Zerbi’s men in the first period.

Emi Buendia’s stoppage time header made the scoreline flatter the Villans, and their head coach has given an honest assessment of the result.

Unai Emery admits that Tottenham outplayed Aston Villa

There has been a lot of debate and discussion about Emery’s decision to rotate his team against Tottenham, but the Spaniard has now insisted that the credit for the win should go to the Lilywhites.

He admitted that his side found it difficult to compete and create chances once they went 2-0 down.

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Speaking after Tottenham’s 2-1 win over his side, Emery said (via Villa’s official website): “Disappointed, but we must accept. Today, Tottenham, especially the first half, they played better than us. They were so, so focused and they scored two goals so quick.

“After, it was more difficult. We tried to react. I think the second half we played more or less reacting, but we couldn’t get really clear chances. We scored the last minute with Emiliano (Buendía).

“But now is the moment I can feel overall how we are doing the season and accepting as well. Today we lost, and today they deserved to win, Tottenham, and keep going in the Premier League to fight for the positions we are.”

Emery insists Spurs are a force despite their position in the table

The Villa boss was even more complimentary of his opponents in his post-match press conference last evening.

Emery asserted that despite the North London club’s position in the table, they showed that they are still a formidable side.

After a hugely significant weekend for the teams towards the bottom end of the table, Opta’s Supercomputer has revised its prediction on where Tottenham will finish.

Things were not looking too rosy for Tottenham when they found themselves at risk of falling adrift of safety until the dying stages of their clash at Wolves.

In fact, even after they emerged with three points from the Molineux Stadium, not many pundits gave Spurs much of a chance of survival.

Roberto De Zerbi continued to assert that Tottenham have the quality to win matches, and his players have repaid his faith by pushing themselves out of the bottom three.

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Where does Opta’s Supercomputer expect Tottenham to finish?

Spurs are not assured of safety just yet and still have work to do, although their chances of remaining in the top-flight look much better after West Ham’s loss to Brentford and their win over Aston Villa.

Opta’s Supercomputer has now revised its predicted table, with the website now backing Tottenham to finish in 17th place with an expected 41.06 points.

The data analysis platform suggests that West Ham are now on course to finish 18, predicting a points tally of 39.18 for Nuno Espirito Santo’s men.

The fact that only a point separates two London rivals in their final prediction suggests that this race is still very much neck-and-neck.

De Zerbi’s prediction has proven prophetic

De Zerbi kept insisting that just one win would completely change the mentality of the Tottenham players, and that seems to have played out.

Speaking after the Lilywhites threw away two points against Brighton, the Spurs boss insisted that his side can win all five of their remaining league games.

While that seemed an outlandish claim at the time, Tottenham have won both their matches since then, and they will be confident going into their big clash against Leeds next Monday.

For the first time since the opening two weeks of the Premier League season, Tottenham have won back-to-back league games, following an impressive and dominant 2-1 victory over a heavily rotated Aston Villa side. Let’s take a look at our match report.

Last week, Tottenham finally put an end to their 118-day wait for a Premier League win with a narrow 1-0 victory over Wolves, and now, they have gone one step further by ending another unwanted streak, securing consecutive league wins for the first time in 253 days.

Roberto De Zerbi named what was arguably his strongest available side, including a midfield trio of Rodrigo Bentancur, Joao Palhinha, and Conor Gallagher that, if we are being honest, did not exactly inspire confidence before kick-off. However, what followed over the next 90 minutes was nothing short of a De Zerbi masterclass.

With one eye firmly on the second leg of their Europa League semi-final, Unai Emery made sweeping changes, resting most of his key players, and Villa never quite looked at the races as a result.

First half: Aston Villa 0-2 Tottenham

Tottenham set the tone almost immediately, as their aggressive pressing forced an early opening inside three minutes, although Richarlison wasted a golden opportunity by turning and shooting when a simple pass to the unmarked Randal Kolo Muani would likely have resulted in a certain opener.

That miss did not come back to haunt them, though, as Spurs deservedly took the lead just under ten minutes later when Conor Gallagher rifled a stunning strike from the edge of the box after Kevin Danso’s long throw had only been half-cleared, with the midfielder opening his account for the club in emphatic fashion.

Joao Palhinha then came close to doubling the advantage with a similarly powerful effort from distance, but Emiliano Martinez reacted sharply to tip the ball onto the near post, before producing another fine save to deny Kolo Muani from close range.

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However, there was little the Argentine World Cup Winner could do to prevent Tottenham’s second, as Richarlison rose highest to head home an excellent inswinging cross from Mathys Tel’s weak foot, doubling their advantage.

Second half: Aston Villa 1-2 Tottenham

Tottenham came out of the break with no drop in intensity, continuing to dominate proceedings even as Villa showed marginal improvement and at least began to see more of the ball. However, they still struggled to create anything of real note against a well-drilled Spurs side.

Whenever possession was lost, which was rare, De Zerbi’s men reacted superbly, be it Kevin Danso commanding in the air, Micky van de Ven using his pace to recover, or both Bentancur and Palhinha intercepting danger before it could develop into anything meaningful.

In truth, it always felt as though the only way Tottenham would concede was if the final whistle was not blown on time, and that proved to be exactly the case in stoppage time. Despite the five minutes of added time having already elapsed, Villa were allowed one final attack, with substitute Emiliano Buendia heading home from a Matty Cash cross, remarkably from their first effort on target of the night

FT: ASTON VILLA 1-2 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

Spurs Web man of the match: Conor Gallagher

What’s next for Spurs?

There will inevitably be plenty of focus on Aston Villa’s heavy rotation and how that may have contributed to Tottenham’s dominance, but that should not take away from what was, quite simply, Spurs’ best performance of the season.

Considering the injury crisis that has plagued them for much of the campaign, the transformation under Roberto De Zerbi has been remarkable, with a group that previously looked devoid of energy and confidence now playing with structure, intensity, and belief.

This victory lifts Tottenham out of the bottom three, now sitting one point clear of the drop zone, and with 18th-placed West Ham facing league leaders Arsenal next, there is a genuine opportunity for that gap to widen further.

As for Spurs, attention now turns to a home clash against Leeds United.

Roberto De Zerbi has provided an update on the fitness of Micky van de Ven and Rodrigo Bentacur following Tottenham Hotspur’s win at Villa Park.

Tottenham’s 2-1 win at Aston Villa significantly boosts their chances of survival, with Roberto De Zerbi now out of the bottom three and just two points behind 16th-placed Nottingham Forest.

It was the sort of performance that Spurs fans have not seen their side produce for a long time, with the away team being completely dominant and hardly giving up any chances.

Many senior Tottenham stars stepped up against Villa, amid the club’s injury crisis, but there were some potential fresh injury concerns for the Lilywhites.

While the win came as a huge boost to the Lilywhites in the race to avoid relegation, Spurs also suffered a couple of injury scares.

Bentancur, who was one of the best players on the pitch, came off on 67 minutes, while Van de Ven also appeared to have rolled his ankle in the dying stages of the game.

However, thankfully, De Zerbi has made it clear that neither the midfielder nor the centre-back has suffered any injuries.

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When asked if Van de Ven had rolled his ankle, the Tottenham boss said (via Football.London): “No, no, no. He’s ok.” When asked if Bentancur was okay, the Italian said: “Yes, yes, Bentancur was just tired.”

Huge win for Spurs but job is not yet done

Two back-to-back wins have lifted the spirits of the Tottenham fan base as well as the players.

The Spurs stars were playing with the kind of confidence that we have not seen for much of the season, but De Zerbi will not want to celebrate too early.

He will know that his side are not out of trouble just yet, with a huge clash against Leeds coming up next Monday.

The underlying numbers from Conor Gallagher’s performance for Tottenham against Aston Villa suggest that Roberto De Zerbi’s side may have found a solution to their lack of a natural number 10.

Tottenham Hotspur, for the first time this year, put in a performance that many fans could get behind when they took to the pitch at Villa Park on Sunday evening.

The stakes were high for Roberto De Zerbi’s men, who would have been desperate to make London rivals West Ham United pay for their slip-up in their own league game against Brentford, where they lost 3-0.

Victory for Spurs was set to lift them out of the drop zone into 17th, leapfrogging Nuno Espirito Santo’s men.

De Zerbi’s side delivered, as Tottenham not only secured a 2-1 victory but did so convincingly, playing with intensity and purpose while dominating and controlling the game from start to finish.

It has taken the Italian four games to get these players into shape and spirit, and many fans will now be fancying Tottenham’s chances of staying up.

Tottenham see Conor Gallagher shine in Aston Villa win

While the manager deserves credit for how well he set his team up, a few players on the night were equally impressive.

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One standout performer against Aston Villa was winter signing Gallagher, who produced his best performance in a Tottenham shirt since joining in January.

The Englishman, known for his pressing and intensity, displayed both at Villa Park as he bossed the midfield in his own way – full of energy, winning the ball and helping to apply pressure on Villa’s defence.

It was a complete display, capped by a well-taken goal from outside the box – his first for Spurs – as a low-driven effort from the former Chelsea man beat Emiliano Martinez and nestled into the bottom corner.

His underlying numbers reflected his impact, with FotMob awarding Gallagher an 8.2 rating, making him the player of the match, while his 11 defensive contributions stood out remarkably for a player operating furthest forward in midfield.

Gallagher gives Spurs a different edge in attack

Gallagher is certainly not your James Maddison or Xavi Simons, capable of playing intricate, line-breaking passes that repeatedly split defences.

In fact, against Villa, the Englishman did not create a big chance, nor did he manage a touch in the box, but his influence on the game was felt.

That is because Gallagher brought a quality that helped Spurs sustain pressure high up the pitch – his ability to press and close down opponents aggressively.

De Zerbi leaned on that to manage the absence of his creative players, with the 26-year-old key to maintaining pressure in Villa’s half and allowing Tottenham to create chances without a natural number ten.

When possession is won high up the pitch, there is little need for elaborate passing; a simple short pass can open teams up, and it worked to perfection on Sunday.