Tottenham 2-3 Aston Villa: a comeback that ran out of time

Tottenham Hotspur 2-3 Aston Villa was three goals to nothing with eleven minutes left and two goals to three by the time Samuel Barrott blew the whistle. Johan Manzambi scored in the fourth minute of first-half stoppage time, Nicolas Jackson made it two on sixty-seven and Emiliano Buendia three on seventy-nine. Conor Gallagher pulled one back on eighty-six and Jan Paul van Hecke headed a second in the eighth minute of added time, and it was still not enough.

Spurs had 63.8% of the ball, twenty shots and eleven corners to Villa’s one. Villa had fifteen shots and scored with three of the six that hit the target. In front of 60,920 it was a fourth defeat in five for Tottenham, who have now scored four goals all season.

A first half of injuries, and a goal at the end of it

The first half kept stopping. Pedro Porro went off injured on nineteen minutes, replaced by Archie Gray. Play was held up again on thirty-six for Manzambi, and again on forty-five for Micky van de Ven, and it was out of that last delay that the opening goal came: in the fourth minute of stoppage time Boubacar Kamara set up Manzambi, who finished left-footed from very close range into the bottom left corner.

Three minutes later van Hecke was booked for a bad foul, and both managers changed things at the break: Matty Cash on for Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Mohammed Kudus on for Mateus Fernandes.

Jackson and Buendia put it out of reach

Manzambi turned provider on sixty-seven, finding Jackson in the centre of the box for a right-footed finish into the bottom left corner. Twelve minutes later John McGinn set up Buendia, who hit a right-footed shot from outside the box into the top left corner. At 3-0 with eleven minutes to play, Villa had scored three times from an afternoon in which they barely had the ball and won a single corner.

Manzambi came off on seventy-two, his afternoon finished with a goal and an assist. There was time for Kamara and McGinn to be withdrawn too, on eighty-four, with Villa managing the clock.

Two goals in the last five minutes

Gallagher had been on the pitch for two minutes when he scored. Kudus found him on the right side of the six-yard box on eighty-six and he finished right-footed into the bottom left corner. Then, in the eighth minute of stoppage time, Andy Robertson crossed and van Hecke headed the second.

• Johan Manzambi (Aston Villa), 45+4 minutes: left-footed, assisted by Boubacar Kamara
• Nicolas Jackson (Aston Villa), 67 minutes: right-footed, assisted by Johan Manzambi
• Emiliano Buendia (Aston Villa), 79 minutes: right-footed from outside the box, assisted by John McGinn
• Conor Gallagher (Tottenham), 86 minutes: right-footed, assisted by Mohammed Kudus
• Jan Paul van Hecke (Tottenham), 90+8 minutes: header, assisted by Andy Robertson
• Shots: Tottenham 20 (7 on target), Aston Villa 15 (6 on target)
• Possession: Tottenham 63.8%, Aston Villa 36.2%

Four goals in five matches, and two of them came today

Tottenham have two points from five games. They have scored four goals all season and half of them arrived in the last five minutes of this one. Their record reads no wins, two draws, three defeats, and the two draws were goalless. Twenty shots and eleven corners is not the profile of a team that cannot create; it is the profile of a team that is not finishing.

Villa arrived with one point and one goal from four matches. They had lost 4-0 at Brighton, lost 1-0 at home to Arsenal, drawn 0-0 at Hull and lost 2-1 at home to Nottingham Forest, and that single goal was the one in the last of those defeats. They scored three here, three times their output for the whole season, and it took them to four points from five.

That is the detail worth keeping. A side that had scored once in four matches scored three times away from home with 36% of the ball and one corner, and did it against a team that had not conceded in two.

Eleven corners to one

Eleven corners to one is the widest gap on the matchday, and it produced nothing for the side that won them. Tottenham have now had more of the ball than their opponent in all five of their matches and have two points to show for it. Their season reads 0-3 at Brentford, 0-2 at home to Newcastle, 0-0 at Forest, 0-0 with Everton, and this.

Three of those five finished without a Tottenham goal, and the two that did not were the opening defeat and this one. Barrott booked one Tottenham player and two Villa players; the afternoon was decided by finishing, not by anything he had to rule on.

Simulate the rest of the Premier League season

Tottenham are creating and not scoring, and Villa have just taken three goals from 36% of the ball. On the Premier League simulator you can carry the real table on from here and see where both of them finish.

• Play the remaining 33 rounds from the real table and the real fixture list
• Run any fixture through the AI match simulator, in tactical view or in the physics arena
• Open the line-up builder for both clubs before you kick off a simulation
• Turn an arena simulation into a vertical video ready to share

"Spurs have scored four goals this season. Two of them came after the eighty-fifth minute of this match, and they still lost."