Aston Villa Vs Tottenham: Match Thread

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Aston Villa 0-2 Spurs
Townsend, Soldado​

Spurs: Lloris; Walker, Chiriches, Dawson, Vertonghen; Paulinho, Sandro; Townsend, Holtby (Dembele), Sigurdsson (Lennon); Soldado (Defoe)
Subs: Friedel, Naughton, Eriksen, Lamela.

Aston Villa: Guzan, Baker, Vlaar, Bacuna, El Ahmadi, Weimann, Agbonlahor, Luna, Westwood, Delph, Kozak.
Subs: Steer, Helenius, Sylla, Benteke, Bowery, Tonev, Lowton.

Ref: Phil Dowd

BBC Live Text
17:26 GOAL - Aston Villa 0-2 Tottenham - Roberto Soldado (69 mins)
Just when Villa's momentum was building, this happens. Tottenham win possession in the left-hand corner and, after a neat build-up, Paulinho's delicate touch plays in Roberto Soldado, bursting into the area. He makes no mistake with his finish, showing us that he can score from open play as well from the penalty spot. Spurs have breathing space.
HALF-TIME - Aston Villa 0-1 Tottenham
16:30 GOAL - Aston Villa 0-1 Tottenham - Andros Townsend (31 mins)
Out of nothing, Spurs score... and there is just no stopping Andros Townsend at the moment. He does not even mean this goal, whipping in a curling cross from the right that eludes his team-mates but bounces straight into the net. Nice play by Lewis Holtby and Roberto Soldado in the build-up, but lots of luck about the finish.

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[chrissivad]

Aston Villa Vs Tottenham
Premier League
Venue: Villa Park Date: Sunday 20th October Kick Off: 16:00​

For more on live coverage please visit Geez's Live Media Thread​

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Tottenham will look to get back on track when they take on Aston Villa at Villa Park on Super Sunday.

Spurs' fine start to the season came to a halt in their last outing at White Hart Lane, where West Ham stunned Andre Villas' Boas' hosts with a 3-0 win.

Jermain Defoe was preferred to Roberto Soldado in the lone striker role, but is likely to make way for the Spaniard for the trip to the Midlands.

England winger Andros Townsend has been hogging the headlines since his dazzling displays in the wins over Montenegro and Poland.

But Villa boss Paul Lambert says Townsend is nowhere near being the next Gareth Bale and insists there will be "no special attention" on him from the Villa defence.

These two teams locked horns in the Capital One Cup third round, with the Londoners securing a comfortable 4-0 win.

Villa drew 0-0 with Hull City in their last game before the international break - but toppled Manchester City 3-2 in their most recent home game, so will be confident of taking something from Super Sunday's showdown.

Paul Merson's prediction

I think Andre Villas-Boas dropped a clanger by starting Jermain Defoe against West Ham. I like him, but I think he's best as a substitute. Roberto Soldado hasn't been scoring too many goals, but something must have been working because they'd been winning matches.

This will be a hard game for Tottenham and with Christian Benteke back in the side I think Villa will get a result. Both teams will want the other team to attack them and play on the break, so it will be interesting. I think it will be a draw.

Tottenham
England winger Aaron Lennon could return to the Tottenham squad after recovering from a foot injury that has kept him out since August.

He is unlikely to win a starting role, however, with Townsend, Christian Eriksen and Gylfi Sigurdsson likely to be play in an attacking midfield trio behind lone frontman Soldado, who is likely to replace Defoe.

Left-back Danny Rose (toe) and midfielder Etienne Capoue (ankle) are out until next week. Defender Younes Kaboul is doubtful because of an adductor injury.

A Villa
Lambert is assessing Christian Benteke's fitness before deciding whether to throw the striker back into action for Aston Villa.

The Belgium international has been out since September with a hip injury but trained with his country earlier this week and was an unused substitute in their match against Wales on Tuesday.

Manager Lambert will look at his other international stars ahead of the match following their return to the Midlands this week, but Jores Okore (cruciate ligament) and midfielder Charles N'Zogbia (Achilles) are long-term casualties.

Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert will assess Christian Benteke's fitness before deciding whether the forward will face Tottenham.

Benteke has missed the last two league games with a hip injury but trained in the week with both Belgium and Villa.

Tottenham winger Aaron Lennon is in contention to face Villa having recovered from a foot problem.

Danny Rose and Etienne Capoue are definitely sidelined, while defender Younes Kaboul is a doubt.

In Tottenham's last two visits to Villa Park, they have metaphorically pulled Aston Villa's pants down with thumping 4-0 wins.

Last month in the Capital One Cup, Villa's Nicklas Helenius ACTUALLY had his shorts pulled down by Jan Vertonghen of Spurs in one of this season's more bizarre moments. Had a penalty been given and Vertonghen sent off, we could have seen a very different result - and I'd expect something at least a little different this time too.

Villa are five points better off than at this stage last season. That's not in itself a totally accurate barometer of improvement, but it is when you consider they've already had to play Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City.

The win over City in their last home game didn't half raise eyebrows. Yes, they were under the cosh for the most part, but to take the points showed steel in a still very young team (all under 30, with an average age for that game of 24).

They were also missing a crucial player in Christian Benteke, whose absence was even more glaringly obvious in the bore-draw that followed at Hull. He might be back for this one.

If Villa beating City was a surprise, then Spurs getting spanked 3-0 at home by West Ham a fortnight ago went into genuine shock territory. Prior to the game they'd only conceded two goals in 11 matches all season, but were opened up by a moment of Ravel Morrison magic and some astute tactical planning from Sam Allardyce.

Villa boss Paul Lambert says his own tactics won't involve "special attention" for Spurs' magic man of the moment Andros Townsend, but he's bound to get plenty from every other angle.

Who'd have thought after all the money Spurs have spent that the 'new Gareth Bale' was already at the club? Ah yes, Gareth Bale - remember him? Welsh chap. Scored a hat-trick in this fixture last season.

Head-to-head

• Tottenham are unbeaten in their last nine league matches against Aston Villa (W6, D3) since a 2-1 home defeat in September 2008.
• Villa are winless in their last six league and cup fixtures against Spurs at Villa Park and have won only one of the last nine (in 2008).

Aston Villa

• Villa's current three-match unbeaten run is their longest spell without a league defeat in 2013.
• They have not won successive Premier League home games in a single season since August 2010.
• The Villans have only won 10 of the 41 league matches at Villa Park since the start of 2011-12, barely averaging a point per game in that time (W10, D12, L19, Pts 42).
• Paul Lambert has won more away league games (seven) as manager of Aston Villa than he has at Villa Park (six).
• Villa have not kept a clean sheet in their last 14 Premier League home games, conceding 25 goals in that run.
• They have the lowest average possession figure in the Premier League this season and only saw 33% of the ball in their last home game against Manchester City.

Tottenham

• Spurs conceded more goals (three) in 13 minutes against West Ham in their last match than they had in their first six league games (two). That 3-0 defeat ended a six-match unbeaten run in all competitions.
• All three of Tottenham's away fixtures this season have ended 1-0 (W2, L1).
• They had attempted an unrivalled 117 shots in the Premier League this season ahead of the weekend.
• Mousa Dembele could make his 100th Premier League appearance.
• Andros Townsend had attempted (50) and completed (33) more dribbles than any other player in the Premier League this season prior to the current round of fixtures.

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[SteveH]

I am intrigued to see how AVB and the guys reacts to the last game.
Will be a hard and tough test for us.
COYS

 

[hughy]

Come on you Spurs!

Team news should be interesting. Is Benteke still out for them? Also I hope to God Rose is fit.

 

[werty]

Come on you Spurs!

Team news should be interesting. Is Benteke still out for them? Also I hope to God Rose is fit.

Benteke should be fit according to Sky.

 

[JerryGarcia]

This match can't come soon enough, they won't be push overs like they were in the cup with a weak side out. It could be tricky but we can take them, I want to see Sandro and Soldado starting.

 

[matthew.absurdum]

Benteke should be fit according to Sky.

I am okay with that. I think if Benteke is fit, they will try to attack more instead of doing the west ham's style defense. Our attacking players could find more space

 

[teok]

On the flip side the guy is a monster who can score from nothing. We better have practised defending corners.

 

[ajspurs]

Obviously it can only be a positive if Benteke isn't playing but with or without him we should certainly win this game. Even if they did beat Man City, so did Cardiff and we went there and dominated, even if we did only just get the win there.

It's actually getting to the stage where we have so much talent in the squad, with the likes of Sandro, Lennon, Adebayor, Capoue, Lamela and Defoe only on the bench that we can't really have any excuses for not winning games like these, even though I do understand that there are no easy games in the PL, but that's just too much talent to not be getting the results that we should be getting.

 

[shelfboy68]

I think it's more of the same if I'm honest 2-0 or 3-1 defeat especially if benteke is back we have no one to handle him.

 

[teok]

Obviously it can only be a positive if Benteke isn't playing but with or without him we should certainly win this game. Even if they did beat Man City, so did Cardiff and we went there and dominated, even if we did only just get the win there.

It's actually getting to the stage where we have so much talent in the squad, with the likes of Sandro, Lennon, Adebayor, Capoue, Lamela and Defoe only on the bench that we can't really have any excuses for not winning games like these, even though I do understand that there are no easy games in the PL, but that's just too much talent to not be getting the results that we should be getting.

If any one had predicted us losing 0-3 to west ham before the last game they would have probably been banned. Any thing can happen, villa beat the gooners away some thing we didn't do.

 

[ajspurs]

If any one had predicted us losing 0-3 to west ham before the last game they would have probably been banned. Any thing can happen, villa beat the gooners away some thing we didn't do.

Of course anything can happen, I'm not saying I can't see us losing, I'm just saying I certainly think we should be winning.

 

[Grapo2001]

Sunday games

 

[jackino cowlinero]

Benteke is back and I do worry about him against Walker and Dawson.

Rose wasn't in our latest training video so I'm really worried he's not going to make it back even though we were led to expect him to be. Sandro and Soldado have to come into this game and I'd be surprised if Holtby didn't get a run especially after how well he played at Villa Park in the cup.

Must win game for us and I think we'll get a 2-1 win with Soldado scoring from open play and maybe a Towsend league goal. COYS

 

[Mr Pink]

Paul Merson's prediction

I think Andre Villas-Boas dropped a clanger by starting Jermain Defoe against West Ham. I like him, but I think he's best as a substitute. Roberto Soldado hasn't been scoring too many goals, but something must have been working because they'd been winning matches.

This will be a hard game for Tottenham and with Christian Benteke back in the side I think Villa will get a result. Both teams will want the other team to attack them and play on the break, so it will be interesting. I think it will be a draw.

PAUL PREDICTS: 2-2

 

[Ghost Hardware]

What actually happened to Rose? He's been out for ages... I thought it was a small knock.

 

[dagraham]

What actually happened to Rose? He's been out for ages... I thought it was a small knock.

F*** know's. I do have serious doubts about our medical team.

If its Naughton on the left again then AVB has to play Towsend on the left to give us some width. He can still come inside when he chooses to as we have seen from the England games he can shoot with either foot.

Play Lemala on the right or if he's too knackered after the internationals, play Lennon instead.

 

[dontcallme]

Big game for us. We need to win to keep up with the top teams.

I don't care about the message to the rest of the league, we need point on the board.

Hopefully Soldado starts.

 

[$hoguN]

Paul Merson's prediction

I think Andre Villas-Boas dropped a clanger by starting Jermain Defoe against West Ham. I like him, but I think he's best as a substitute. Roberto Soldado hasn't been scoring too many goals, but something must have been working because they'd been winning matches.

Says a fucking lot when Merson, someone who always bangs on about what a great goal scorer Defoe is, actually spots starting Defoe as the monumental fuck up that it was. Hopefully AVB has learned his lesson and starts with our best striker, Mr Soldado.

 

[dagraham]

Says a fucking lot when Merson, someone who always bangs on about what a great goal scorer Defoe is, actually spots starting Defoe as the monumental fuck up that it was. Hopefully AVB has learned his lesson and starts with our best striker, Mr Soldado.

I actually don't think it was as big a fuck up as it seems. I can understand why AVB played Defoe, as he was in excellent form and part of a having a competitive squad is making players feels they can force their way in if they are playing well.

Where I think he missed a trick was not starting Holtby with him. Holtby has been involved in almost all the goals Defoe has scored this season. I would pick Soldado over Defoe all day but I can at least understand why AVB picked him.

What I can't understand and what I thought was a bigger fuck up, was the failure to react during the Chelsea game and a continuation during the West Ham game not to see that we weren't going to score in a month of Sundays when we were being squeezed in the middle. We needed width and I just can't get my head round why AVB couldn't see it.