Villa's New Faces Come to the Fore as Emery's Side Finally Gets Off the Mark at Spurs
· Yahoo Sports
Aston Villa needed a Premier League win at Tottenham Hotspur more than they needed a perfect performance, and while the final few minutes made a game that should have been comfortable far more uncomfortable than it needed to be, there was enough in the preceding 80 or so to suggest that some of the pieces of this new-look side are beginning to fall into place.
Going into the game, I wasn't particularly bothered how Villa got the three points. It had reached the stage where the result had to come first because another international break spent talking about a winless start to the Premier League season would have felt incredibly long, particularly after the disappointment of the Nottingham Forest defeat. Instead, Villa have gone to Tottenham, scored three times and won a game which contained enough encouraging individual performances to make the result feel like more than simply getting off the mark.
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It certainly wasn't straightforward from the beginning. Spurs were the better side for periods of the first half and Villa needed Zion Suzuki, who was excellent, to make sure they stayed in the game when the home side had the momentum. There was a double save early on, another really good stop through a crowd of players and a general authority whenever the ball came into his penalty area which is becoming increasingly noticeable. Villa didn't control that opening period particularly well, but sometimes your goalkeeper has to get you through those moments and Suzuki did exactly that.
What Villa did have, even when they weren't controlling possession or creating chance after chance, was a threat in transition which gradually became more prominent as the game went on. Nicolas Jackson worked incredibly hard at the top end of the pitch and Johan Manzambi, making his first start, gave Villa something they have been missing. There were moments when the decision-making could have been better and occasions where the final ball wasn't quite there, but there was an athleticism and directness to Villa's attacking play which Tottenham increasingly struggled to deal with.
Manzambi's goal was scruffy in its construction, but I actually liked what it told us about him. He's playing as the number 10 but he wasn't standing on the edge of the penalty area admiring the situation; he had got himself into an area where he could sniff out a goal when the ball broke his way. For a 20-year-old making his first Premier League start, there was very little about him that looked tentative, and while I'll go into his performance in much more detail elsewhere, the most encouraging thing was how naturally he seemed to fit into the level of the game.
The second half was when Villa really started to look dangerous. Tottenham had to chase the game and inevitably left more space, but Villa still had to exploit it and for a period Jackson and Manzambi were causing them enormous problems. Jackson eventually got the goal his performance deserved, his first in the Premier League for Villa, and there were numerous examples before that of the qualities he gives this team. He can stretch a defence, he can run into the channels and he has that burst of acceleration which can turn a fairly innocuous situation into something dangerous very quickly. The relationship between him and Manzambi was particularly encouraging because Villa suddenly had two players capable of hurting Tottenham in different ways but operating in close enough proximity to combine.
Then Emi Buendía did what Emi Buendía does. I didn't think he had been particularly good in the first half and I've been critical of elements of his game this season, but I've also always said that he has the ability to produce a moment and his goal was exactly that. It was a brilliant strike and, once it went in, you could almost see the confidence flow through him. There is never really a question about his work rate or how much playing for Villa means to him, and even on an afternoon when everything hadn't come off with the ball, he still found a way to make a decisive contribution.
There were important performances at the other end as well. Tyrone Mings was very good for the majority of the afternoon and Villa needed that because this remains a team trying to establish a new hierarchy after so much change. Mings and John McGinn are incredibly important in that respect. There are younger players in the side, there are new players still learning exactly what Emery wants from them and there are others who may eventually develop into the organisers and leaders Villa need, but at this point those two are still fundamental to holding everything together. Mings dealt with so much of what came into the penalty area and I also thought some of his work in possession was excellent.
That is why the final stages were frustrating. At 3-0 the game should have been dead and Villa allowed Tottenham to make the scoreline far closer than it needed to be. The second goal in particular leaves a sour taste because game management has already been a talking point this season and there is clearly still work to do in terms of controlling matches when the momentum begins to change. The full-back areas were difficult for Villa for much of the afternoon as well, particularly in the first half, and this certainly wasn't a performance without flaws.
But those are things Villa can work on after a victory rather than spending another fortnight trying to explain why they haven't won a Premier League game. That distinction is important. This is a team which has undergone considerable change and there are combinations that are only beginning to develop, players still adapting to their surroundings and a manager working out exactly what his strongest version of this side looks like.
For the first time in the league this season, though, we saw enough of the upside to understand what that version might eventually become. Suzuki kept Villa in it when Tottenham were on top, Manzambi announced himself properly, Jackson gave Spurs problems throughout, Buendía produced the moment he is always capable of producing and the experience of players such as Mings and McGinn remained important around them.
The two late goals mean nobody should pretend everything has suddenly been solved, but Villa didn't need everything solved at Tottenham. They needed a win, they needed some of the new players to begin showing why they were brought to the football club and they needed something positive to take into the international break.
They got all three.