Match Threads Aston Villa vs Spurs

[easley91]

And played free flowing football. Was an incredible performance. People honestly come out with some nonsense on here

There's a lot of revisionism when it comes to them both I think. We weren't always 100% defensive the whole time under both. The season Conte came in we blew teams away playing some wonderful stuff.

 

[Styopa]

It’s funny going back and reading the comments around page 25. I thought we looked pretty comfortable in the first half, in what I was expecting to be a tough away game against a decent team.

The main difference in the second half was scoring an early breakthrough goal and then the second almost immediately after. That changed the nature of the match and blew apart Villa’s game plan. The sending off helped a bit too but I don’t think it was crucial.

I don’t have a massive issue with it taking us a bit of time to score the opening goal, provided we are playing well and dominating. I think most goals are scored in the second half anyway. I do think scoring the first goal makes a big difference though.

 

[ohtottenham!]

Just watching the first goal again. Wow, just wow. How much did we pay for Pape Sarr?: What a ceiling that young man has. Absolute superstar

On the "young" theme, I'd say our most consistently, high-performing outfield players this season have been Saar, Van de Ven, Udogie and Porro. Although Porro's a bit of a dinosaur at age 24, it's a great sign for our future.

 

[EssexSH27]

Anyone notice how bad that Zanilo was for them yesterday. Another bullet dodged. Funny that he was the reason Conte lost his marbles

 

[djhotspur]

Was away, just came to say it was an excellent performance against a good side who set up to draw. It was the strongest defensively we’ve looked all season. Everyone played well.
I was worried we weren’t going to score as we didn’t look like breaking them down until the goal but then some beautiful football got us the goal which is what you need.
Hopefully this gives us confidence now and we kick on and secure 4th

 

[djhotspur]

It’s funny going back and reading the comments around page 25. I thought we looked pretty comfortable in the first half, in what I was expecting to be a tough away game against a decent team.

The main difference in the second half was scoring an early breakthrough goal and then the second almost immediately after. That changed the nature of the match and blew apart Villa’s game plan. The sending off helped a bit too but I don’t think it was crucial.

I don’t have a massive issue with it taking us a bit of time to score the opening goal, provided we are playing well and dominating. I think most goals are scored in the second half anyway. I do think scoring the first goal makes a big difference though.

Yeah we dominated the game, looked comfortable if the first half if not strong going forward as they set up to draw. In games like that you need proper quality to get goals and sarr delivered that.

 

[Spurs 1961]

Hoping to watch the game today but am very encouraged by the fact we scored four having scored three last week.
I have been concerned that we don’t finish teams off. I understand how now, unlike the start of the season, teams park the bus against us so we need to be patiently relentless to break teams down. But until last week we had not won by more than one goal since December. The top three regularly win by several goals. Perhaps now we have our A team back as well as integrating new players we are starting to finish teams off.
A great result against a hard team to beat. Amazing where we are considering only a handful of our starting team were at Spurs last season!

 

[Ribble]

Villa's remaining games

View attachment 138543

3 home games that are winnable for them but they also have 3 exteremely tough away games.

They then have Chelsea, Brighton and Liverpool in a 3 game sequence.

They will need to rediscover their form they had just before xmas if they are to get much.

Meanwhile, we have some games where, if we turn it on, can get some points on board before the tough run we have.

With their injury list and McGinn out for 3 that's a lot of hard games. I didn't think Man United could catch them before, but seeing that I think they're actually at risk of dropping out of the (possible) 5 CL spots. If that happens they're going to be in a financially sticky situation.

 

[easley91]

Watching this game and Liverpool v City yesterday something stood out to me. What happened to bookings for delaying restarts/kicking the ball away? Seems to have died a death..

 

[hughy]

Watching this game and Liverpool v City yesterday something stood out to me. What happened to bookings for delaying restarts/kicking the ball away? Seems to have died a death..

I don't really get why Dragusin gets a booking for slightly sticking his leg out to block a quick free-kick while he's running back to position, yet Zaniolo doesn't get booked for kicking the ball away in frustration when we won a throw-in.

For me these are in the same category of incident in which either both players should get booked, or neither. There is absolutely no consistency and it drives me insane.

 

[easley91]

I don't really get why Dragusin gets a booking for slightly sticking his leg out to block a quick free-kick while he's running back to position, yet Zaniolo doesn't get booked for kicking the ball away in frustration when we won a throw-in.

For me these are in the same category of incident in which either both players should get booked, or neither. There is absolutely no consistency and it drives me insane.

I understood Dragusin's booking because he did try to block it, even slightly. It's just the lack of consistency for me which I really shouldn't be surprised at to be honest. At the start of the season they were hot on it, but now it's a warning. Even the time wasting from goal kicks and throw ins aren't being pulled up on anywhere near as much. For once I would like officials to get a law and just stick to it for an entire season.

 

[Trix]

View attachment 138562

Why is Mother Theresa cuddling John McGinn

 

[thelak]

Got to say on reflection Villa absolutely bottled it yesterday

Totally changing their style of play is something you do for prime Barca not a top 4 rival below you in the league when playing at home

McGinn building the game up as the biggest in their history when it got a fraction of the fanfare on our side

Also the wankfest over Ollie Watkins seems totally overblown. Flat track bully with large majority of his goals coming against non top 6-8 sides

 

[KILLA_SIN]

Re watched the game last night. Smoked those Bitches

 

[bigfrooj]

Some old Spursness did kick in after the sending off. I was thinking 'it wouldn't be the first time we've had a lead and lost against 10 men' . I'm nearly cured but not quite there yet.

 

[thelak]

...to add.

They don't play any of Forest, Everton, Luton, Burnley and Sheff Utd as they already have.

We still have 4 of those 5.

Whoever said that they were in a 'false position' before is spot on. Those games have bumped them up, while we have played tougher games in that period.

If you look at their form closely they have been losing to all the tougher opposition they have faced in 24 and only picking up points against teams lower down the table. Their home form has fallen off a cliff too

 

[Nick-TopSpursMan]

And played free flowing football. Was an incredible performance. People honestly come out with some nonsense on here

I’m sorry but there is a world of difference between the two performances and there’s a reason yesterday’s 4-0 feels so much better.

In 21/22 under Conte, we got dominated first half and were extremely lucky to go in level. Son scored a beauty early on and then they battered us. Second half we improved a lot and we took them apart on the counter attack.

Yesterday we dominated the entire match from start to finish. We didn’t create much in the first half but we were always the protagonists in the match and second half we destroyed them. We didn’t hit them with endless amounts of shots etc but we just dominated and controlled the game in a way you always see top teams do.

Next we should consider that in 21/22 Villa finished 14th and were largely terrible. The Villa team we played yesterday are 4th and have had a superb season.

The difference between the 2 matches is really shown in the possession. In 21/22 under Conte we had 48% possession (against a 14th placed team) when we beat them. Yesterday we had 70% possession against a Villa team far superior to that in 21/22.

When we win matches now it’s generally much more satisfying because we are the protagonists, we look to dominate the ball and play in a style which people associate with top teams. Under Conte it was more of a defend deep and counter which is never as satisfying.

So I’m not surprised whatsoever that people find yesterdays win much more enjoyable and reflect on it much more positively.

 

[ohtottenham!]

If you look at their form closely they have been losing to all the tougher opposition they have faced in 24 and only picking up points against teams lower down the table. Their home form has fallen off a cliff too

I think Unai's done really well with getting the best out of that squad, but they weren't going to sustain that run. They were really lucky we had half our first team out in the match at the Lane, and Cash made it even worse for us during that game.

 

[Bluto Blutarsky]

 

[$hoguN]

Got to say on reflection Villa absolutely bottled it yesterday

Totally changing their style of play is something you do for prime Barca not a top 4 rival below you in the league when playing at home

McGinn building the game up as the biggest in their history when it got a fraction of the fanfare on our side

Also the wankfest over Ollie Watkins seems totally overblown. Flat track bully with large majority of his goals coming against non top 6-8 sides

I think the MOTD analysis where Murphy points out Emery was backing Watkins and Bailey to be dangerous on the break knowing they couldn’t dominate possession against us was pretty spot on tbh. I don’t think it was a huge tactical blunder, I just think they were always going to struggle against the way we play