Aston Villa came from behind to beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 away from home in the Premier League on Sunday.
Rodrigo Bentancur gave the hosts the lead with a deflected effort inside five minutes. However, Spurs couldn’t hold onto the advantage, with long-range Morgan Rogers and Emi Buendia efforts eventually handing all three points to Unai Emery’s men.
This latest home setback leaves Spurs sixth in the Premier League, while Aston Villa rise to 10th, just two points behind their hosts.
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Palhinha & Bentancur vs Rogers
After a slow start to the campaign, it’s been a good couple of weeks for Morgan Rogers, who provided assists in wins over Fulham and Burnley in Villa’s last two games before the international break, then followed up by scoring his first international goal against Wales.
Sunday’s showdown in North London was defined in large parts by his duel with Tottenham midfield duo Joao Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur.
Of course, it was Bentancur who opened the scoring within the first five minutes. But he and his Portuguese counterpart — who provided the assist — were obviously given strict instructions to sit deep, protect their defence, and close out the spaces Rogers likes to occupy so much.
The result was Palhinha and Bentancur making a combined 12 tackles, two interceptions, and six recoveries, with the pair dribbled past just three times.
This went a long way toward shutting Rogers out, with the 23-year-old touching the ball just 41 times, completing only 15 passes and failing to create a single chance.
Of course, Rogers is no run-of-the-mill attacking midfielder and needs just one sniff to punish the opposition. And that’s exactly what he did, unleashing an incredible strike worth just 0.04 xG beyond Guglielmo Vicario to level the scores in the 37th minute.
It one of a very small number of occasions throughout the match where Bentancur stood off, and Palhinha wasn’t close enough to cover the space, and Rogers made them pay.
This was a classic example of two defensive midfielders carrying out their work to near-perfection, in a league where anything less than perfection is inevitably punished.
Villa make the most of scraps
This was by no means a ‘good’ Tottenham performance, but they did edge it statistically, outshooting Villa 9-8 to the tune of 0.97-0.37 xG and 4-0 in big chances.
But rarely did the Lilywhites truly scare the visitors. Beyond Bentancur’s deflected opener, Wilson Odobert had their best opportunity but saw his effort in the 53rd minute blocked inside the box.
Other than that, it was a lot of posturing from Spurs, without any real cutting edge.
By contrast, Aston Villa made the absolute most of what they had.
Rogers pulled them level with a 0.04 xG effort, and then in the 77th minute, Emi Buendia settled the tie with another similarly-placed shot worth the exact same xG. 0.08 combined xG from those shots, yielding two goals.
Villa didn’t show any respect to Tottenham, often getting in their faces and disrupting them in possession. And it paid off as they managed to push the Lilywhites to the edge of their own box to create shooting opportunities just when they needed them.
Again, Palhinha and Bentancur were nearly perfect, but that doesn’t cut it in the Premier League.
Tottenham’s miserable home form continues
Sunday’s defeat sees Spurs slip to sixth in the Premier League, but they’re still just two points adrift of Manchester City and only five behind leaders Arsenal, so there will be no panicking just yet.
What will worry the powers that be in N17 is their awful home form.
Spurs have now taken just four points in the Premier League this season on their own patch, winning one of their four home games.
This defeat follows on from a 1-1 draw against bottom-of-the-league Wolves in their last home game, which was only salvaged thanks to a 94th-minute Palhinha equaliser.
Tottenham Hotspur’s home results in the Premier League this season
- Tottenham 3-0 Burnley
- Tottenham 0-1 Bournemouth
- Tottenham 1-1 Wolves
- Tottenham 1-2 Aston Villa
And this isn’t a Thomas Frank-exclusive trend. Looking back to the start of last season under Ange Postecoglou, Tottenham have played 23 home Premier League matches, winning just seven of them and picking up 25 points. For comparison, rivals Arsenal have taken 49 points at the Emirates in the same time frame, while Manchester City have taken 51 points at the Etihad Stadium.
There is simply no way Spurs can maintain a challenge on the Champions League places if this trend continues, and it’s something that Thomas Frank will be looking to rectify as a matter of urgency — especially given the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United visit next month.