Harry Kane scored a consolation goal but could not prevent Aston Villa from producing one of the narrow football results of the weekend in the Premier League. Unai Emery’s team moved up to seventh, which is likely to earn a spot in the Europa Conference League, thanks to goals from Jacob Ramsey in the eighth minute and Douglas Luiz in the 72nd minute. At Villa Park, Tottenham had a terrible first half in which they had no shots, only one touch in the box of the opposition, and no predicted goals. Prior to Luiz’s goal from a set piece, Ryan Mason’s team did come close to tying the score. However, Emiliano Martinez stopped Harry Kane, and replacement Dejan Kulusevski curled a shot just wide of the post. However, Kane’s 90th-minute penalty set up a tense finale at Villa Park after Heung-Min Son had a goal disallowed for offside.
Spurs’ chances of playing in Europe next season were ultimately dashed by Villa’s ability to cling on. Spurs, who are currently sixth, are only ahead of Villa on goal differential with two games remaining, while eighth-placed Brighton has three games in hand. Ramsey scored the first goal from Leon Bailey’s cross in the eighth minute to give the home team the lead at Villa Park. Tottenham has a history of giving up early goals in recent games, and that trend continued there. The away supporters, who had not seen their team have a shot at goal in the first 45 minutes, booed the visitors at halftime after their awful first-half performance.
Villa, meanwhile, ought to have had a bigger lead at halftime. The winger took a low first-time effort from Ollie Watkins’ cross in the 32nd minute, but Fraser Forster made a superb one-handed stop to save Bailey from scoring. Emiliano Buendia curled a shot from Ramsey’s pass but it struck the woodwork two minutes before halftime. When Forster stopped Buendia early in the second half, everything got back to normal. However, a few minutes later, the visitors almost scored an equalizer. When the ball dropped into Kane’s path on the edge of his own box, Luiz was robbed. Kane then shot directly at Martinez from within the box.
As Kulusevski curled just inches wide of the far post in the 65th minute, Kane’s opportunity fired Spurs into life. However, Villa increased their lead to 2-0 seven minutes later when Luiz curled in a free kick from 25 yards out past Forster, who would have been miffed with his one-handed attempt. After a protracted VAR review, Martinez was found to have fouled Kane, and the Spurs were granted the chance to mount an improbable comeback. Although Son had a goal disallowed for offside in the 95th minute, it was already too late as the Tottenham captain blasted in his 27th Premier League goal of the season.
“The environment is the environment. When you are steady and resilient within, that shows externally. Although it is a challenging time, everyone is cooperating. The most crucial factor is the atmosphere you aim to create. It’s occurred far too frequently this season to go behind by a goal so early. We have to improve. It’s a really depressing day,” Tottenham head coach Ryan Mason said. “Their custodian made an incredible save at 1-0 that may have affected the course of the game since I thought we posed a greater threat in the second half. We are aware that we still have control over the outcome of the two crucial games, so we must continue to learn and strive to improve. We came here to play a good team, so you have to realize that you have to suffer together before the game changes, as we witnessed in the second half. However, you can’t get to that point when you are down a goal.”
“In the first half, we played at a high level while maintaining our individuality. Maybe in the first half, we deserved more. It’s difficult to stay focused for 90 minutes when you’re playing a very talented squad,” Aston Villa head coach Unai Emery said. “They performed better in the second half, but we ultimately deserved to win. This is our sixth straight victory here, and we want to connect with them, acquire their energy, and give it to them.”
For more football results, click here
