Tottenham and Aston Villa engaged in a helter-skelter game of Premier League football on Sunday afternoon — two of the most adventurous teams in the division living up to their reputations.

There was a minute’s applause before the game kicked off in memory of former Tottenham manager Terry Venables, who died on Saturday.

Advertisement

Spurs then produced five shots in the first seven minutes, before taking the lead through a fine (albeit deflected) Giovani Lo Celso strike midway through the half. Ange Postecoglou then lost Rodrigo Bentancur to injury after a nasty-looking tackle by Matty Cash — yet another name to add to club’s long list of absentees — before Villa equalised on the stroke of half-time.

And for the third game in a row an early lead only resulted in a Tottenham defeat, as Villa controlled much of the second half — winning the game with an Ollie Watkins goal on 61 minutes. Villa’s continent-leading offside trap ruled out not one, not two but three Son Heung-min goals as Unai Emery’s team overtook Spurs to go into fourth place.

Here, Tim Spiers breaks down the game’s key talking points.

Why was the first half so open?

When Ange Postecoglou selected an XI which contained no specialist centre-backs or defensive midfielders, plus a front three supplemented by two attacking midfielders, a 0-0 draw was about as realistic as the Australian manager not saying the word ‘mate’ in a press conference. Spurs’ squad has been decimated by injuries, but in typical Postecoglou style he didn’t apply caution to try and stifle Villa — instead the plan was to overwhelm the opposition with a fast, all-encompassing, vertical-football approach: runners everywhere, through balls and overlaps.

Positions seem less relevant in this Spurs side — witness one full-back (the increasingly creative Pedro Porro) putting another (Destiny Udogie) through on goal within just a couple of minutes. They had struggled to create opportunities at Wolves in their previous match when they often got stuck in midfield, but here they had no such issues, generating wave after wave of attacks with goalscorer Giovani Lo Celso impressing in particular.

Advertisement

With both teams utilising a high line and playing for offsides, it was no surprise they both had goals ruled out by a raised flag. And it was also no surprise, given their lack of height and centre-backs, that Spurs ended the half by conceding from a set piece.

Is this the start of a decline or just a temporary blip?

It’s hard to see Spurs rediscovering their magnificent form of the first 10 games of the season (eight wins, two draws) while so many players who were key to that run are absent. James Maddison, Yves Bissouma, Pape Matar Sarr, Cristian Romero and Micky van der Ven were all integral to Spurs’ performances, results and style. And their replacements in the XI here are just not at the same level.

5 – Tottenham are only the fifth side in Premier League history to lose three consecutive games despite going 1-0 ahead in all three, and first since Leicester City in December 2014, whose third game was also against Aston Villa. Slip.

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 26, 2023

They created enough chances to win three games; Son Heung-min scored a hat-trick of offside goals, Emi Martinez produced a couple of outstanding saves and Ben Davies missed a header from a couple of yards out. But ultimately they didn’t take those chances — and yet again it was in defence where the absences were most keenly felt.

Maddison may be their playmaker and arguably one of the Premier League’s best players this season, but it is actually Van der Ven who they miss the most. If he had been on the field you could argue that Villa may not have scored either of their goals — you can imagine Van der Ven heading the free kick clear that Pau Torres equalised from, and you can picture him cutting out the pass that allowed Ollie Watkins to score the winner.

Is Postecoglou’s approach just too high risk with this set of players?

It probably is when you’ve got Emerson Royal at centre-back and a midfield which ended the game here of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Oliver Skipp and Dejan Kulusevski, but the Australian doesn’t know any other way to play — and if he starts abandoning his principles now then Spurs will be in trouble.

Advertisement

As it is, they went into this game without their first-choice centre-back pairing and the entire midfield trio which had taken Spurs to the top of the table a few weeks ago. And then they lost Bentancur to injury. Take those five core players out of any side and they will struggle — look at Manchester City losing three games when Rodri was suspended.

What this run of defeats has highlighted is that Spurs’ squad needs improving. If third choice centre-back Eric Dier isn’t deemed good enough to get in this defence, it’s clear that Postecoglou has nowhere near the squad that he wants, which isn’t a surprise given he only took over in the summer. Technical director Johan Lange has been brought in to rectify that and January will be an important month, especially with some of their injuries set to last into 2024 and Bissouma and Sarr due to be off to the African Cup of Nations.

It’s been a disappointing few weeks for Spurs and it might not get better anytime soon with Manchester City away next weekend. But some perspective as to where they are at in the Postecoglou era is required. It’s still very early days.

What did Ange Postecoglou say?

On creating plenty of chances but still losing: “Yeah, again, the outcome is obviously disappointing. Disappointing for our fans and particularly disappointing for our players because I felt the players we had out there did a fantastic job playing the football we want to play. On any other day it’s probably a game we win comfortably. It’s about those fine margins in football sometimes.”

On the defence he selected: “Obviously with Watkins and Diaby in there, both very good players and direct in the way they play, I thought we could handle it fairly well. I thought we did for the most part, obviously they got through for the second goal and that was disappointing. I just thought the way we set up today was to try to be dominant in the game in terms of playing through what we knew was going to be an aggressive line they had and I thought we did that well.”

On the run of defeats: “We’ve just got to make sure the players stay focused on what’s important right now and you need to win games of football to keep yourself in the mix to be in a strong position come the end of the year, but right now we’re still building a side. What’s more important is the way forward has to be with what the end goal is in mind and today was about trying to play the football we want to play. If we fell short, we fell short but I didn’t think we fell short today. I thought it was just fine margins for us and not getting the rewards.”

On Bentancur’s injury: “It is his ankle I think. It wasn’t a great tackle. I thought he started the game so well and I think it was the reason we got a real good foothold on the game. He’s such a creative player. It’s the last thing we needed, another injury. So disappointed to lose him but we’re yet to see the extent of it.”

What next for Tottenham?

Sunday, December 3: Manchester City (A), Premier League, 4.30pm GMT, 11.30am ET

Advertisement

Spurs travel to the Etihad for a game that could prove pivotal in the Premier League title race come the end of the season.

Recommended reading

(Top photo via Getty Images)