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It has been one of the curiousities of Thomas Tuchel’s rapidly evolving England side that until today the man in possession of the No 10 shirt had not scored all season.
Morgan Rogers put paid to that statistic with a sumptuous strike to equalise for Aston Villa near half-time, before substitute Emiliano Buendía grabbed an unexpected winner for the visitors with 13 minutes remaining.
Villa had ridden their luck, with Tottenham dominating the ball and creating more chances, but this hard-fought victory is enough to suggest that their pre-international break revival could become permanent. After five successive wins in all competitions the misery of a disappointing, PSR-affected summer and resultant slow start to the season seems like a distant memory.
Tottenham’s season in contrast, is in danger of flattering to deceive, as they did in the game. After taking a fifth-minute lead through Rodrigo Bentancur, this was a golden opportunity to move up to second in the table and put pressure on Arsenal, which they could not take.
More worryingly, the defeat conforms to a pattern of Tottenham failing to take advantage of the support of a 61,000 crowd, with home games against Bournemouth, Burnley, Wolves and Villa bringing just a solitary victory. There were only a handful of boos at the final whistle, and the exciting and energetic playing style fostered by Thomas Frank means he remains in credit, but a dismal run of just three wins in 18 home matches needs correcting quicky.
Frank could also do with improving his record against Unai Emery, who is now undefeated in six Premier League games against the Dane, which did not look like being the case in the first half.
Tottenham had suffered a pre-match setback, with the captain Cristian Romero injured during the warm-up and replaced by Kevin Danso. The Austrian defender’s last outing was a 1-0 win against San Marino during the international break, hardly ideal preparation for his first Premier League start of the season.
Tottenham made light of the loss of their captain with a lightning-quick start to take the lead. Amadou Onana could only clear Mathys Tel’s corner as far as the edge of the Villa penalty, from where Tel played the ball back out to Mohammed Kudus on the left flank.
Kudus’ cross found João Palhinha at the back-post for the Dutch defender to head back across goal to Bentancur, who scored with a well-controlled half volley from just inside the penalty area. The timing of the Argentine’s run and in technique in keeping the ball down was impressive, and Emiliano Martínez had no chance as the ball deflected off the unfortunate Onana.
Villa appeared shell-shocked and would have fallen further behind two minutes later had Kudus’ work off the ball matched his delivery on it. Micky Van de Ven found Kudus in acres of space on the right with one of his trademark cross-field balls and his pace took him clear of Villa’s back-four to finish past Martínez, only for him to be ruled offsided.
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It was a poor error from Kudus, but he continued to terrorise Villa, as did Wilson Odobert on the opposite flank. The visitors survived two more let offs before somehow grabbing an equaliser against the run of play, with Onana appearing to grab Odobert’s shirt on the edge of the penalty area and Martínez spilling a cross from the French winger that he managed to gather at the second attempt.
Villa’s only attempt on goal in the opening half-hour was a shot that flashed past the far post from Matty Cash, whose every touch was booed in a legacy of his reckless challenge on Bentancur two years ago. The Polish international’s tenacity created a rare opening seven minutes before half-time, with his pressure on the ball creating a half chance for Rogers, who took full advantage to score his first goal of the season.
Rogers struck the ball well, but it beat Guglielmo Vicario in the middle of his goal and he looked faintly embarrassed as he collected it from the back of the net, one of his first touches of a hitherto quiet afternoon.
Villa were more competitive in the second half, with Donyell Malen hitting the side-netting just before the hour, but their winner was still unexpected. A cleared corner fell on the halfway line to Cash, who showed great vision to attack the ball and play a thunderous half-volley to the right for Lucas Digne, who released Buendía.
The Argentine cut in from the flank and beat compatriot Vicario to seal the points for Villa.
