Aston Villa came from a goal behind to inflict a third successive Premier League defeat on Tottenham.
An enthralling contest which saw both teams go at it hammer and tongs ended with Unai Emery’s visitors running out 1-2 winners. Ange Postecoglou’s men began the season with a 10-game unbeaten start (eight wins and two draws) but have now lost three on the bounce.
In each of these defeats, they’ve opened the scoring, meaning Tottenham subsequently became the fifth team to ever lose three consecutive Premier League games after scoring first after Blackburn (April 2007), Sunderland (February 2011), Wolves (April 2012) and Leicester (December 2014).
Even more damning Tottenham are only the third team in English top-flight history to go unbeaten across their first 10 games of a season, and then lose their next three games, after Huddersfield Town in 1924/25 and Sheffield United in 1971/72.
Postecoglou, who came into this contest missing a slow of key first-team players, reintroduced Giovani Lo Celso to Spurs lineup, the last such occasion was a 3-0 home defeat to Manchester United in October 2021 with each of his six appearances since prior to today were as a substitute.
Lo Celso recently played under current Aston Villa manager Unai Emery at Villarreal and fate would have it broke the deadlock when converting a Pedro Porro corner. It was his second goal for Tottenham, with his first coming on 21st November 2020, three years and five days ago. The visitors immediately struck back when Ollie Watkins nodded from close range but that effort was subsequently ruled out by VAR for being offside.
VICTORY IN NORTH LONDON! 😍
again. pic.twitter.com/6OLd7eT2AB
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) November 26, 2023
Spurs then lost Rodrigo Bentancur to injury, another in the physio room, before Pau Torres equalised from a Douglas Luiz setpiece. In fact, only Bruno Fernandes (17) and James Maddison (16) have been involved in more Premier League goals in 2023 among midfielders than Luiz (15 – 10 goals and five assists). Robert Jones then blew the whistle for half-time.
The second 45 was no different with both goalkeepers routinely busy. Son Heung-Min would twice put the ball past Emiliano Martínez but he was in an offside position on both occasions. Watkins, meanwhile, learned from his mistake and put Villa ahead. “Really poor defending from Spurs for the Watkins goal. Brilliant goal for Villa, lovely finish. But defensively from Spurs, really Spursy,” an unimpressed Roy Keane said.
Watkins subsequently continued his good record against Spurs on the road. He’s now either scored (three) or assisted (one) in his four Premier League visits. Furthermore, only Erling Haaland (18) has scored more goals among Premier League players in all competitions this season than him (12). His winner pushed Villa above Spurs in the standings. It’s also the first time since December 27th 2009 they will end a day in the Premier League’s top four positions at least 13 games into a season.