Tottenham 0-2 Aston Villa: Miserable stat underlines abject performance to start 2023

Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa - Premier League
Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty I
Marc Mayo1 January 2023

Tottenham suffered a terrible start to 2023 with a New Year’s Day 2-0 defeat at home to Aston Villa.

Spurs, shorn of the injured Dejan Kulusevski, lacked spark early on as they looked to avoid a tenth consecutive game conceding first.

Ollie Watkins dragged a shot wide after breaking in behind before Heung-min Son’s frustrations were expressed by the winger chucking his facemask to the ground having lost possession.

Ashley Young denied Harry Kane’s header with a smart goalline clearance in the moment of a first half with almost as many yellow cards (three) as shots (six).

Spurs looked relatively bright early in the second half but went behind for the tenth game in a row when Douglas Luiz’s speculative effort bounced off Hugo Lloris’ chest and into the danger zone.

Ollie Watkins spun the ball back to Emi Buendia for a snapshot finish after 49 minutes.

Kane sent an awkward half-volley off target as Spurs struggled to assert their authority in the search of an equaliser.

It was little surprise when Villa were the ones to score next, Douglas Luiz rounding off a swift move up the pitch with a calm finish from John McGinn’s fine pass.

The defeat leaves Tottenham outside the Premier League’s top four with a two-point gap to Manchester United above and Liverpool below, both of which have played a game fewer.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in