Tottenham didn’t sneak this one.
Two goals up inside 25 minutes, dominant for an hour, and back out of the Premier League relegation zone. Conor Gallagher’s first goal in a Spurs shirt and a 25th-minute Richarlison strike were enough to beat Aston Villa 2-1 at Villa Park on Sunday. Emi Buendía’s 96th-minute consolation barely registered. Tottenham leapfrogged West Ham to climb to 17th on 37 points — one above the bottom three — and turned a relegation race nobody at this club imagined being part of in August into something they now control.
Tottenham were the better team for an hour
Roberto De Zerbi was clear afterwards. “We played very well for 60 minutes without the ball and with the ball,” he told TNT Sports. “Especially in the first half, we could score more goals than two. We didn’t concede any chance to score.”
The data agrees. Spurs out-shot Aston Villa 10-5, with five on target to Villa’s one. Their xG closed at 0.93 to 0.62. The visiting side carried the chance-quality edge through both halves. It was only when Watkins came on around the hour mark that Villa finally found some shape.
Gallagher gets his first
The 12th-minute opener belonged to Gallagher — his first goal since signing for Spurs. “It’s always a relief to get the first goal,” the midfielder told TNT Sports. “It’s been a perfect night, but hopefully it’s just the start. We want to carry it on for the last few games of the season.”
Richarlison made it two on 25, capitalising on Spurs’ early dominance. After that, Antonín Kinský’s clean sheet went on a 70-minute test. Five Tottenham yellows in the second half tell their own story — including a booking for Gallagher in the 96th minute as Aston Villa surged forward. But Kinský was rarely worked properly until Buendía’s late strike.
What it means for the relegation race
Spurs and West Ham swap places. Burnley and Wolves are mathematically gone. Tottenham now have a one-point cushion and a goal-difference advantage of ten over the Hammers (-9 vs -19).
| Pos | Team | P | Pts | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | Crystal Palace | 34 | 43 | -6 |
| 16 | Nottingham Forest | 35 | 42 | -2 |
| 17 | Tottenham | 35 | 37 | -9 |
| 18 | West Ham | 35 | 36 | -19 |
| 19 | Burnley | 35 | 20 | -36 |
| 20 | Wolves | 35 | 18 | -38 |
The run-ins look uneven on paper. West Ham face Arsenal at home, then Newcastle away and Leeds at home — a top-of-the-table fixture front-loaded into a tough finish. Spurs play Leeds and Everton at home and travel to Chelsea — three mid-table opponents on opponent quality alone.
The complication is venue. Tottenham have won just two of their seventeen home games this season (W2 D5 L10). They have collected far more on the road (26 points from 18) than at home (11 from 17). Two of their three remaining fixtures are at the ground where they’ve struggled all year.
West Ham’s home record is steadier, but Arsenal first up neutralises that comfort. Neither run-in is comfortable. The question is which awkward shape both teams handle better.
Unai Emery’s tone afterwards was striking. Aston Villa are still in the Champions League places and have a Europa League semi-final second leg against Nottingham Forest on Thursday, and the Spaniard sounded like a manager already triaging. “Today we faced a team that played fantastically and they competed fantastically,” he said. “They needed the points and they fought to get it. In the first half we didn’t perform well, in the second half we reacted but it was not enough.”
For Spurs, the maths are now their own. “I know how much they have suffered this season,” De Zerbi said. “We cannot be happy just for these two wins. We have to keep working with the same mentality.” Three games to do it. One survived.