Postpublished at 43 mins
Tottenham 0-1 Aston Villa
Morgan Rogers feeds Ollie Watkins, who drags a shot wide of the far post. The England striker's first chance of the game.
Dominic Solanke scored twice as Tottenham came from behind to beat Aston Villa in the Premier League.
The £65m summer signing doubled his league goal tally for the season with two goals in four second-half minutes as Ange Postecoglou's side climbed to seventh in the table.
Solanke put Spurs ahead with a delightful first by lifting the ball over the onrushing Emiliano Martinez from Dejan Kulusevski's pass, before Richarlison picked out his team-mate to slot in and put a late fightback beyond Villa.
Morgan Rogers had given Villa the lead with the game's first shot on target after 32 minutes, profiting after Spurs failed to deal with Lucas Digne's in-swinging corner.
The visitors, denied an opener less than two minutes earlier when Amadou Onana's header hit the post, were impressively organised and successfully absorbed large spells of pressure in the first half.
But that good work was undone within four minutes of the restart when Brennan Johnson met Son Heung-min's excellent cross from the left, transforming the atmosphere at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and laying the foundations for his side's latest comeback.
Substitute James Maddison then added a fourth with a wonderful free-kick deep in stoppage time as Spurs repeated their 4-1 win from a goal behind against West Ham in their previous home league game.
Victory ensured Tottenham reduced the gap to the top four following last week's loss at Crystal Palace, with fourth-placed Arsenal two points ahead, as fifth-placed Villa missed the chance to go third.
Spurs are yet to find consistent form as they aim to return to the Champions League following a fifth-place finish last season, winning back-to-back league matches just once in their opening 10 league games this season.
But while they have been unable to match their superb start under Postecoglou last term - they began November 2023 top of the table - they continue to show remarkable resilience under the Australian.
Having responded to the disappointing defeat at Palace by beating Manchester City to reach the EFL Cup quarter-finals in midweek and continue their pursuit of a first piece of silverware since 2008, here they conceded the opening goal for the 12th time in 14 home league games in 2024.
However, by full-time they had equalled the Premier League record for home wins when conceding first in a single year - with this the eighth occasion.
Villa's opener came against the run of play but via a familiar vulnerability for the hosts, with a combination of Pedro Porro and Rodrigo Bentancur diverting Digne's set-piece towards Guglielmo Vicario, who could only parry the ball into Rogers' path.
The hosts were relieved to see Ollie Watkins, kept quiet for much of the first half, fail to double the advantage when he dragged his shot wide before half-time.
But the equaliser early in the second half ignited Spurs, who emerged from the break with renewed intent while preventing Villa landing any attempts on target.
Captain Son played a key role on his return from a two-game injury-enforced absence, but the South Korea forward was visibly surprised to be substituted only a few minutes after assisting Johnson's leveller.
That allowed Solanke to take centre stage, the 27-year-old showing his class particularly with his first, and Postecoglou will hope his big-money addition can continue to build confidence to aid his team's search for consistency.
"There is great belief in these players. We stick to our principles and when we do that we are hard to stop," said Postecoglou.
"I felt the momentum was going our way, we knew we would finish strong and if we upped it a couple of gears, like we can, we knew we would be hard to stop."
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Position | Team | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals For | Goals Against | Goal Difference | Points | Form, Last 6 games, Oldest first |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 19 | 6 | 13 | 25 |
| |
2 | 10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 21 | 11 | 10 | 23 |
| |
3 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 14 | 7 | 7 | 19 |
| |
4 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 20 | 12 | 8 | 18 |
| |
5 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 17 | 11 | 6 | 18 |
| |
6 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 17 | 15 | 2 | 18 |
| |
7 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 22 | 11 | 11 | 16 |
| |
8 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 17 | 14 | 3 | 16 |
| |
9 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 12 | 1 | 15 |
| |
10 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 15 |
| |
11 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 18 | 18 | 0 | 13 |
| |
12 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 12 |
| |
13 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 12 | -3 | 12 |
| |
14 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 13 | 19 | -6 | 11 |
| |
15 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 14 | 18 | -4 | 10 |
| |
16 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 17 | -7 | 9 |
| |
17 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 13 | -5 | 7 |
| |
18 | 10 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 21 | -11 | 5 |
| |
19 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 7 | 19 | -12 | 4 |
| |
20 | 10 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 14 | 27 | -13 | 3 |
|
Manager: Ange Postecoglou
Formation: 4 - 3 - 3
Manager: Unai Emery
Formation: 4 - 2 - 3 - 1
Manager: Ange Postecoglou
Formation: 4 - 3 - 3
Manager: Unai Emery
Formation: 4 - 2 - 3 - 1
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Tottenham have lost three of their last four Premier League meetings with Aston Villa, though did win the last such match 4-0 in March. They’d only lost two of their previous 21 against the Villans (W16 D3).
Aston Villa have won three of their last four Premier League away games against Tottenham (L1), including the last two in a row under Unai Emery. They last won three consecutive away league games against Spurs between 1922 and 1924.
Tottenham have lost nine of their last 16 Premier League games (W6 D1), with only Wolves (12) losing more since the first game in this run in April. Spurs had only lost seven of their first 31 games under Ange Postecoglou (W18 D6).
Tottenham have conceded the first goal in 11 of their 13 home Premier League matches in 2024 but have come back to win seven of those games. The only team with more home wins when conceding first in a single year are Newcastle United in 2002 (8).
Only Liverpool (13) and Nottingham Forest (11) have won more away Premier League points this season than Aston Villa (10 – W3 D1). Villa have only won as many as four of their opening five away league games in a season once before, doing so in 2020-21 (W4 L1).
Aston Villa have won nine of their 13 away Premier League games in London under Unai Emery (D3 L1). That 69% win ratio is the best by a manager at a single club in away games in London in Premier League history (min. 10 games).
Only two of Tottenham’s last 71 home Premier League games has ended as a draw (W47 L22) and they are the only side without a home draw since the start of last season (W16 L7).
Tottenham’s Son Heung-Min has been involved in nine goals in eight Premier League games against Aston Villa (6 goals, 3 assists), though all six of his goals against them have come at Villa Park. No player has scored more against an opponent without netting a home goal in the competition.
In 2024, Aston Villa have scored the most Premier League goals from subs (10) and have the most goals and assists combined from subs (10 goals, 7 assists). It is the joint most sub goals they’ve scored in a single year, also netting 10 in 2023.
Tottenham have scored 49 goals in 23 home Premier League games under Ange Postecoglou. The only manager to hit 50 goals in 24 or fewer home games with Spurs is Antonio Conte (50 in first 20).