A game that had almost everything, but in the end it was the three
points that Tottenham took back to North London that was the most
pleasing thing, especially as they had to play for well over an hour
with ten men after the harsh sending off of Jermain Defoe for an alleged
elbow on James Collins.
Villa came into the game off the back of
their first win in five games and they were hopeful of getting something
in this game to relieve the pressure building on new manager Gerard
Houllier. They way they started, it seemed as though that might be
a possibility, but the lack of a cutting edge to their attacking is
perhaps the underlying reason for the Villains lowly league position,
which worsens by the week. The attacking threat of a once fearsome
Emile Heskey, who is now nothing more than a poor battering ram and the
potential that remains unfulfilled in Gabriel Agbonlahor means that
Villa are reliant on their midfielders to chip in, but when pushed back,
they find it difficult to get forward. The especially
disappointing Stewart Downing must now be rueing the fact that he kept
turning down Tottenham as a destination when he left Middlesbrough and
ended up at Villa Park, where his career is rapidly moving into a siding
that will not see him return to the England squad.
Twice within the first two minutes, Villa
created openings, with Gomes being brave in coming to block a shot by
Albrighton in the first minute, as the midfielder seized on Collins's
header forma free-kick and then Agbonlahor was unmarked ten yards
out when he put a header from a cross from Fabian Delph. The
youngster who was at Leeds looked as though he might have a major
influence on the game after being out injured for so long.
Luka Modric was usually at the heart at
all that was good about Spurs' play and his pass into Lennon in the
fourth minute saw Aaron turn the ball on for Defoe to run into the right
hand channel and bring Friedel rushing from his goal to get a hand on
his shot and the loose ball was hacked away. Within a couple of
minutes, an almost identical replica of the penalty claim against
Chelsea was made by Villa. A ball ran loose away from goal near
the dead ball line, with Gomes running after it with Heskey and the
Spurs keeper jumped forward to punch the ball away at waist height and
the former England forward, in his usual fashion, hit the deck as though
he had been hit by David Haye. Referee Atkinson, who had an
disappointing game overall, waved play on and TV replays did show that
the goalie had got the ball first and Heskey was doing nothing more than
simulating ... for which he didn't get booked.
Gomes had a comfortable shot to make from
a weak Downing shot just before Spurs had a goal ruled out unfairly on
the quarter hour mark. A long free-kick from the left from Rafael
van der Vaart missed out everyone in the middle, but Alan Hutton was alive to it
and volleyed the ball back into the near post area, where Younes Kaboul
pounced to hit home a shot similar to the one he scored against Werder
Bremen on the Champions League. However, the eagle-eyed linesman
wrongly decided that the ball had wholly crossed the line and gave a
goal kick. Once more, TV replays showed that the ball was still in
play when Hutton met it and thus one more strong argument for video
replays is made.
The game was quite open and end to end,
leaving Spurs to defend a long ball, where Heskey headed on the ball and
then held off Dawson, allowing Agbonlahor to run at goal and from just
inside the box shoot, but Gomes got down to it and when the ball spun up
into the air to the right of the goal, the Villa striker got there
first, but Gomes once more dived to his left to push the ball away
as it looked like it might sneak in at the near post. It was
easier for the Brazilian goalie in the 22nd minute, when Albrighton
escaped Kaboul, but couldn't find power or accuracy in his shot to beat
Gomes and this effort typified Villa's play in making good chances, but
failing to make anything of them.
As it turned out, it was a costly miss,
with Spurs breaking away and Modric picked out a diagonal pass from the
left side of midfield that cut through the Villa midfield and defence to
release Alan Hutton on the right wing. He took the ball on before
pulling it back low to the edge of the six yard box, where Rafael van
der Vaart ran into take the ball of Defoe's toe and side-foot it into
the bottom corner of Brad Friedel's net, leaving the giant American with
no chance. 23 minutes in and a clinical finish to a flowing move
had put Spurs into the lead, with the return of the Dutchman seeing him
return to goal-scoring form.
Unfortunately, the next major talking
point was somewhat more controversial. As a long ball was pumped
forward, Jermain Defoe jumped for it, with James Collins behind him
coming in for the header. As they went up, Collins went down
holding his head as Defoe's arm was in the air. Atkinson walked
towards the Spurs man and reached for his shorts pocket to pull out the
red card and Tottenham were down to ten men with just 28 minutes on the
clock. The loss of the one striker Spurs had started with meant
that VDV had to move up front on his own instead of playing just behind
Defoe and the rest of the team lined up the same.
Despite falling behind in the number of
players, Spurs defended well and even looked as good going forward, as
when they were at full strength. Kaboul hit a free-kick that
Friedel couldn't hold onto and then Spurs broke out with van der Vaart
and Wilson Palacios linking to run through the Villa defence and the
Honduran got to the edge of the box when he let go a shot that Friedel
touched round the post, but once more the officials were not sharp
enough to see it. Things might have changed in the 39th minute
when Heskey limped out of the game, much as he had graced it with his
limp performance and he was replaced by another young Villa talent,
Nathan Delfouneso. However, while there are a number of young
talented players coming through into the Midlands side, seemingly, there
is no plan as to how the team shape up and this leaves them without a
direction to play to. The youngster did show a bit of spark in
trying a 20 yard curler, but it went over and the rest of the half was
played out without much more incident, which was probably just as well,
as there was enough in the first half to keep us all talking about at
half-time.
One of the bright young Villa stars
failed to appear for the second half, with Stilian Petrov coming on to
add some experience in the midfield and he steadied the home side's
ship, with his neat passing and movement. He almost opened the
half with a goal, as he stole in at the near post to get his head on a
cross, then Delfouneso exchanged passes with Agbonlahor to find a
shooting opportunity, but he hit it straight at Gomes. A better
chance came when a cross from the right was almost overhead-kicked by
Delfouneso, but he mis-timed it and missed the ball, but it ran to the
far post and was knocked back in, only to be cleared to Delph on the
edge of the box. The youngster's volley was struck well, but about
five yards wide. That was within the first five minutes of the
second half, with nothing much notable happening until 58 minutes in,
when Cuellar rose to head Downing's cross well wide, when he really
should have tested Gomes.
Delfouneso got a shot in after turning
away form Michael Dawson, but the Spurs keeper was there to push the
ball wide, before Downing crossed for Cuellar again to get his head on
the end of it, but this time he tried to pop it back over Gomes and
ended up putting it a long way wide. When the next Villa attack
broke down, the ball came out to Rafael van der Vaart, 25 yards form his
own goal. Facing his own goal, the Dutchman touched the ball to
his left, where Bale was breaking out of defence and his pace took him
more than half the length of the pitch to the edge of the Villa box,
where he passed to the left side of the area to Lennon. Taking one
touch and looking up, Aaron found van der Vaart supporting just inside
the penalty box and as the ball rolled into his path, he adjusted his
footing to sweep a low left footed shot across Friedel an into the
opposite bottom corner to double Tottenham's lead ... even though it
wasn't necessarily despite the numerical disadvantage. it was a
fine piece of counter-attacking that left Villa's players shocked by the
pace of the move and Rafa once showed a finesse in his finishing to give
Spurs a little breathing space.
It took Villa five minutes to get any
sort of response with an effort on target, with Agbonlahor headed a
cross straight at Gomes, who held onto the ball and Houllier tried to
shake things up with the last throw of the dice, as Pires came on as the
third Villa sub, but the ex-Gooner's major contribution was a spat with
Redknapp on the touchline after he had been fouled. I still
wouldn't have fancied Pires' chances, even though he had 20 years on
Harry !! For the Spurs manager's part, he brought on Peter Crouch
for the tiring VDV, who got a great ovation and he stood by the bench,
anxiously watching proceedings.
With 15 minutes to go, the Tottenham goal
came under pressure and Gabriel Agbonlahor brought a low save from
Gomes, as he turned and shot, with the follow-up corner coming in for
Gomes to punch out. However, the ball did not go far and Eric
Lichaj was there as the ball dropped, but unaccustomed to finding
himself in such an advanced position, he put his volley wide.
Villa got luckier in the 82nd minute, as
Albrighton made progress on the left side and swung a cross into the
heart of the penalty area. As Collins went in for it, pulling
Kaboul as he went, the ball evaded him and with Gomes covering the
potential of a header, the ball slipped past him and into the net at the
far post. It was another soft goal to concede, but it left Villa
sniffing the outside chance of a point with only a short time left in
the game and only facing ten men.
in the remainder of normal time, Spurs
put in a stoic rearguard action to restrict Villa to one shot from
Petrov that went way over and Gareth Bale had the opportunity, from a
free-kick, to make Friedel scamper across his line to cover his goal and
make sure that the ball was always going narrowly wide.
Late in the game, Albrighton, probably
the most impressive Villa player out there, slung in a deep cross that
fell to the feet of the the American Villa full back, Lichaj, who had
been pushed up in an attempt to steal late equaliser and he shot at goal
from close range, albeit a narrow angle, and put his effort wide,
although he didn't have much of the goal to aim for.
With Modric getting al ate booking for a
foul before he was substituted and Gomes picking up another yellow card
for time-wasting, there was little more to worry about from the home
team and when Jermaine Jenas, a replacement for Lennon, took the ball
forward on a long run, it looked like things might even go further
Tottenham's way. A foul brought that hope to an end, but it used
up vital time and took the ball well away from the Spurs goal.
The final whistle saw the players
celebrate the three points and perhaps more than that, the new-found
confidence and resilience to go away and win, whether the odds are
stacked against them or not. This was a performance that would not
have come from a Spurs side a few years back.
With performances like this, another
place in the top four is a realistic ambition.
Marc Spillane |