Spurs Get Back To Scoring and Winning Ways

After a disappointing derby loss against West Ham, Tottenham bounced back against Aston Villa securing a 0-2 away victory. This was Spurs’ fourth away victory and clean sheet in succession. After an invisible performance against West Ham, Christian Eriksen was dropped in favour of Lewis Holtby; who has notched 6 assists so far this season, whilst Sandro was also awarded his first league start of the season.

Andre Villas-Boas repositioned Jan Vertonghen at left-back, with Vlad Chirches moving to central defence, which meant that Kyle Naughton was demoted to the bench. The other major change was the return of Roberto Soldado in favour of Jermain Defoe. Overall the game was a comfortable 0-2 away win, where Tottenham played better as the game progressed. Initially despite dominating possession, Spurs had no real penetration as Villa, as suspected, sat deep were and looked to counter attack

Tottenham kept the ball well and remained patient though, achieving 63% possession with 426 passes played. Man of the moment, Andros Townsend, was triple marked (by Antonio Luna, Fabian Delph and Gabby Agbonlahor) and was not allowed to turn when receiving the ball. After we had scored the game went came into Tottenham’s favour as the home side were forced to come out more.

If we take a look at Tottenham’s completed forward passes, we see that a lot play was sent to the wings towards Gylfi Sigurdsson and Townsend, both of whom enjoyed a stellar international break. This is also reflective of having a fit again Kyle Walker and a left-back, in Vertonghen, being left footed. This meant there was more willingness to push forward on overlaps and provide natural width to our inverted forwards. Townsend capped off a terrific week by scoring his first league goal for Tottenham, and was the team’s main attacking threat.

The winger has curbed his shooting addiction and is now is seeking out other options and diversifying his play. When he did shoot from range, his efforts on target were often directed straight towards the keeper in the middle third of the net. However, against Villa he came close with two attempts; one forcing a low diving save from Brad Guzan, and the other a left footed curler that skimmed the top of the net.

Townsend completed his all around diverse performance by firing in 10 crosses, one almost being converted by Paulinho. The winger was also able to complete 5 of his 9 take-ons, mostly against Luna; whose legs tired as the match progressed. As the Aston Villa chased the game, Townsend was able to use his pace more on counter attacks and found himself in promising positions after half time. This highlights how important it is that Spurs score early in games, as we often struggle to play into the final third when our opponents are sitting back.

If an opponent is chasing the game, it makes the affair more open which benefits our pace; the second half of this game is an example of that. Due to this reason Aaron Lennon appeared from the bench to mark his return from injury, coming on for Sigurdsson. It is interesting that Lennon played exclusively on the left; demonstrating Andre Villas-Boas’ love for inverted wingers.

Townsend has inevitably gained most media plaudits, but Soldado and Sandro both influenced the game positively. This was Soldado’s first spurs goal from open play, and it was his hard work that created the opportunity for Holtby and then Paulinho to set him up. This was the Spaniard’s only shot in the game, and he made it count. With a home league fixture against Hull approaching, he could well be on target to net in back to back matches.

Despite only having one shot, his movement and passing still impressed and was a definite improvement on Defoe’s efforts against West Ham. His movement into the channels allows more space and time on the ball for our creative midfielders, which unfortunately often goes unnoticed.

You can see in the passes he made that Soldado, unlike Libor Kozak and Christian Benteke for Aston Villa was able to keep attacks alive when his back was turned to goal. Because of Soldado our wide men were more involved in the game, whilst Andreas Weimann and Agbonlahor were almost invisible for this game. Another factor in the Villa wide men not receiving the ball often was the return of “The Beast”. This was Sandro’s first league start since his injury last year and despite the length of his league absence Sandro was not one to get emotional, stating in a post game interview that, “The Beast does not cry”.

Sandro protected the back four and constantly pressed on Aston Villa’s midfield three, when they were in possession, to stop them from finding Weimann and Agbonlahor. Mousa Dembele was substituted on late in the game, and he helped us remain calm in the final moments. With four central midfielders available to us, Sandro, Dembele, Etienne Capoue and Paulinho, it will be interesting to see how Andre Villas-Boas will rotate them when they are all fully fit.

The Beast’s defensive duties were matched by an excellent performance from captain Michael Dawson; who sometimes had to cover from mistakes made by league debutant Chiriches. The Romanian international is a player very a ball playing centre back who is not afraid to run forward with the ball. In fact, one of Chiriches’ forward runs led to a headed chance from Sigurdsson.

However, much like Chelsea’s David Luiz, Chriches is prone to making defensive errors, and it is important to have someone as no-nonsense as Dawson to cover for him. In conclusion, this was a vital victory for Tottenham as AVB’s team aim to keep up with the pace setters. It also marks Spurs’ best points total after 8 games in the Premier League history, and perhaps the start of a nice run of form. The match was controlled by our residential Beast, and won by the flair of Townsend and the movement of Soldado.

[author name=”Jai B” avatar=”https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/1659352356/IMAG0018.jpg” twitter=”Jai_B” tag=”JaiB[/linequote]