Aston Villa 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur (26 Nov, 2023) Game Analysis

Tottenham Hotspur slipped to a third successive Premier League defeat as they were beaten 2-1 at home by Aston Villa in a thrilling, chance-filled clash on Sunday.

Villa’s first win on the road in just over two months moved them past Tottenham into fourth place in the table, but that didn’t seem likely at first.

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The hosts earned a deserved lead thanks to Giovani Lo Celso’s deflected shot in the 22nd minute and could have been comfortably in front before Pau Torres equalized with a flying header from deep in first-half injury time.

Chances continued to flow both ways after the break, but it was Villa who took the lead with a fine finish from Ollie Watkins just after the hour mark after being set up by Youri Tielemans.

Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez made two superb saves, Ben Davies headed a golden chance over the bar and Pedro Porro hit the post for the unlucky hosts who also suffered another blow as Rodrigo Bentancur limped off in the first half.

For Tottenham, who were unbeaten in their first 10 Premier League matches under new manager Ange Postecoglou until a 4-1 home defeat to Chelsea, the wheels appear to have come off.

They dropped to fifth place with 26 points and will face champions Manchester City next weekend.

The injury-hit Spurs are also the first team since Leicester City in 2014 to lose three consecutive Premier League matches despite being 1-0 up, having also been ahead against Chelsea and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

“A tough result but I couldn’t be happier with the way the boys played,” Postecoglou said

I’m really proud of them, I thought we played fantastic football and another day we would have won comfortably. There’s no frustration. We played well and as a coach, That’s all you can ask for.”

Unai Emery’s Villa have 28 points from 13 games, behind Liverpool on goal difference, with Tottenham now fifth on 26 points.