Match Analysis: Aston Villa 0–4 Tottenham (EPL)
Aston Villa’s run of defeats stretched to four at the weekend, as they lost 4–0 at home to Tottenham Hotspur. Antonio Conte’s Spurs took the lead early and held on under some serious pressure in the first half, before putting the game to bed in the second. Here is my analysis of the game.
Starting line-ups
Early goal impact
It would be wrong to omit the early goal for Tottenham in this analysis. In the third minute, a long ball from back to front was not properly cleared away by Konsa. With Villa’s midfielders slow to get back in preparation for the second ball, Kane was free to shoot. The deflection fell to Son, who struck well to open the scoring.
Before taking the lead, Spurs had tried to put pressure on Villa’s centre-backs deep in their own half on back-passes. Kane led, supported by Kulusevksi, who closed down Mings from the outside. Hojbjerg and co tried to get tight to Villa’s receivers in midfield. But after taking the lead, Spurs sat off and let Villa’s centre-backs have free possession up to the halfway line. This let Villa dominate possession and gain momentum as the first half went on.
Villa press high with narrow front three to disrupt Spurs’ flow
Villa defended in a narrow 4–3–3, with the front three staying close together to block routes into midfield for Spurs. Ings, Coutinho and Watkins cut off those angles while closing down the Spurs centre-backs. If somehow Spurs managed to find Hojbjerg or Bentancur, Villa always had a striker or two close by to pressure them, limit their scope of passing and time on the ball.
This approach forced Spurs into sideways passes along the back line. Once Dier went sideways to either Romero or Davies, Watkins or Ings would close down their opponent and Villa would press man-to-man near the touchline. On a run of bad form, Villa’s high pressure came with hard tackles and fouls (no doubt asked for by Steven Gerrard) that broke up the flow of Tottenham’s passing.
Spurs revolve around Kane — Villa can’t find him
Spurs remained patient under pressure, building out with short passing exchanges between the centre-backs and central midfielders. Hojbjerg and Bentancur struggled to find space to play forward from midfield due to the close proximity of Villa’s front three, but they remained involved and there were a lot of simple up-and-back passing: centre-back to central midfield and back again.
These combinations didn’t move play forward, but sometimes they drew Villa’s front three central and made space out wide for Romero or Davies to find an easier angle into Kane, Kulusevski or Son.
Once Spurs got their forwards on the ball, the tempo of their play instantly went up. It was one- and two-touch combination play between the forwards, featuring lay-offs from Kane and third-man runs in behind by Son and Kulusevski.
On occasions when Son or Kulusevski came short for the ball into feet, they took a bad first touch under pressure and gave it away. Kane was understandably the main target for Romero and Davies to hit directly, and he found space in midfield thanks to…
- 1) Son and Kulusevski pinning back Villa’s centre-backs, and…
- 2) Luiz doing a terrible job of marking him. Throughout the game, Kane was able to take the ball on his back foot, turn and play in Son or Kulusevski, because Luiz — Villa’s holding midfielder — was nowhere near.
McGinn and Ramsey are Villa’s launchpads; Coutinho sparkles
Managing Rangers, Gerrard developed a preference for fielding a 4–3–3 where the outside midfielders started deep inside right and left, to receive freely from the centre-backs. He asked the same of McGinn and Ramsey here. Spurs found it difficult (as most teams will) to close them down due to the unorthodox positions they took up.
Spurs defended in a 5–4–1 — Son and Kulusevski had to keep an eye on Villa’s full-backs overlapping, while Hojbjerg and Bentancur had to stay together to try and prevent balls into Villa’s front three between the lines. All of this meant that McGinn and Ramsey could act as the launchpads of Villa’s attacking play. They did this in different ways.
McGinn would often look to switch play to Digne, who overlapped on the left wing and got around the outside of Emerson to cross in. Ramsey used his space to gain momentum and dribble or give-and-go his way beyond Tottenham’s midfield.
Villa tried to feed their front three between the lines and Spurs’ two central midfielders found it difficult to block those passes on their own, so Tottenham’s outside backs had to step out of the defensive line and get tight to Coutinho, Ings and Watkins to prevent them from turning and running at the last line with options to play in behind. Romero and Davies did a good job of this generally. Romero gave away a few fouls by being too aggressive, but crucially Villa’s front three rarely got space to turn between the lines.
Coutinho was at the heart of Villa’s play, using flicks and first-time passes to combine with Ramsey and the strikers. He was able to handle the close attention of Tottenham defenders and keep the attack moving. Watkins, on the other hand, did not look at all comfortable receiving back to goal with Romero practically in his shorts.
Most of Villa’s best play came down their left side, which Coutinho tended to drift towards. At times there were some effective rotations and combinations between Coutinho, Ramsey and Digne. The same interplay was not present on the right, as WhoScored’s passing chalkboard (below) underlines. They created some good opportunities, but good goalkeeping by Lloris and strikers fluffing their lines ensured Spurs stayed in front.
Spurs go direct and Konsa struggles in the air
There were some small changes to Spurs’ build-up play in the second half. One was the use of switches from one side to the other to exploit space outside of a narrow Villa defensive block. The other was more long balls from the back up to Kane, with Son and Kulusevski anticipating the flick on to run in behind and score.
Spurs got their second goal after a floated long ball from Lloris, which Kane flicked on for Kulusevski to run onto and finish. And Spurs got their third with a flat, driven long ball from Romero, which Kane glanced into the path of Son behind him. Kane had the beating of Konsa in the air all the time — here’s some foreshadowing of Villa’s problems to come, from the 48th minute.
Konsa struggled in the air for goals one and two, either failing to clear properly or losing out to Kane. Putting the third goal on him is unfair — he had to go with an un-marked Kane between the lines, and the ball from Romero (driven with pace at Kane’s head, not looping high in the air) isn’t his to win. Still, Villa would have wanted their centre-back to deal better with the first two, where simple long balls ended up in goals.
Conclusion
The early goal perhaps changed the pattern of the game, as Spurs dropped off and let Villa have the ball. Villa used this possession reasonably well, with McGinn and Ramsey orchestrating from deep and Coutinho combining well with his teammates. Poor finishing cost Villa , but not as much as poor defending on long balls from Konsa.
Tottenham’s best attacking play revolved, as ever, around Kane — his flick-ons and playmaking to find the runs of Son and Kulusevski. It’s fair to say that Spurs won by a dominant margin without dominating the game, showing the ruthlessness of their front three.
