After 45 minutes in north London, Tottenham Hotspur’s supporters should have been pondering ‘not once more’. Supervisor Ange Postecoglou was most likely pondering the identical.
The Lilywhites had been a objective right down to Aston Villa, courtesy of Morgan Rogers’ prod residence from, you guessed it, a nook, and had been properly and actually second greatest towards what gave the impression to be a well-drilled Unai Emery aspect.
However Villa have an unhealthy behavior of capitulating below stress – until they’re taking part in within the Champions League, through which case all the pieces is spiffing – whereas Spurs have a fairly more healthy behavior of turning Postecoglou’s little doubt scathing half-time phrases into one thing fairly constructive.
On this specific event, Tottenham not solely confirmed why Emery was proper to say they’re favourites to qualify for subsequent season’s Champions League forward of Villa, they confirmed grit, metal and high quality from the bench to show the sport on its head – captain Son Heung-min’s withdrawal after 55 minutes surprisingly the catalyst for Spurs’ efficiency degree to ratchet up a notch.
The problem for Spurs is to not put themselves in such a troublesome place – specifically, cease conceding the primary objective at residence – however a affluent season lays forward if their three greatest performers on the day proceed to shine brightly.
Score: 8/10
Dejan Kulusevski can really feel a bit aggrieved to not be named as considered one of Spurs’ greatest gamers however, let’s be sincere, the Swede is not going to learn this.
If for some miraculous purpose he does, he’ll little doubt be filled with appeciation for the relentless operating machine that’s Brennan Johnson. The Welshman’s contribution usually goes below the radar however he gives a lot to Spurs’ attacking play below Postecoglou.
Furthermore, Johnson has acquired these all-important pure instincts in relation to getting on the tip of a cross. Son did the onerous work, flashing an incredible ball throughout Emi Martinez’s six-yard field, however the 23-year-old nonetheless wanted to get forward of Lucas Digne to show it residence.
That he did, instigating an incredible turnaround for Spurs.
Score: 8/10
This web site has beforehand written about Postecoglou handing Pape Matar Sarr the keys to drive his 100-mile-per-hour Tottenham automotive.
The very unfastened translation of that’s Sarr is a participant able to taking a sport by the scruff of the neck, affecting its end result by having the ability to do principally all the pieces. Run, cross, win the ball again, repeat.
Right here, Sarr did that, quickening the sport to a tempo that Villa could not deal with, and his good studying of Pau Torres’ sloppy cross set in movement the assault that might result in Spurs’ third objective.
Score: 9/10
Until you’ve got acquired the scoring energy of Erling Haaland, Cole Palmer or Mohamed Salah, likelihood is anyone is asking you waste a cash since you’re not delivering each week.
That is definitely a label that is been thrown the way in which of Dominic Solanke – Spurs’ potential club-record signing for a complete price within the area of £65m. Positive, the 27-year-old wish to have proven extra in his previous seven Premier League outings in white, however he is one other participant who has the power to affect the sport in numerous methods.
Turning it on when it actually issues is what Spurs followers will maintain dearest and that is precisely what Solanke did right here. First, he ghosted in behind Villa’s defence with a tremendously timed diagonal run, earlier than dinking the ball over Martinez with a gently deft end.
Then, 4 minutes later, Solanke recognised that he wanted to hold again oh so barely to be able to flip residence Richarlison’s centre 4 minutes later. To say it was Harry Kane-esque could also be a step too far, nevertheless it was top-draw play nonetheless.
