Tim Sherwood’s Tottenham Score Three In Final Game Against Aston Villa
By Logan Holmes
Tim Sherwood and Tottenham ended the season with a three goal win in their final Premier League match against Aston Villa at White Hart Lane.
Tottenham Hotspur 3 Aston Villa 0
Scorers: Paulinho, Adebayor (pen), Opp. o.g.
Team: Lloris; Naughton, Chiriches, Dawson, Rose; Sandro (Veljkovic); Sigurdsson (Pritchard), Paulinho (Bentaleb), Eriksen; Adebayor, Kane Subs: (unused) Friedel, Fryers, Capoue, Soldado
Tim Sherwood made two changes from last week’s starting line-up. Vlad Chiriches replaced the suspended Younes Kaboul and Sandro came in for Aaron Lennon who was injured. There was an inexperienced bench including Fryers, Nabil Bentalen, Milos Veljkovic and Alex Pritchard. Etienne Capoue was also named among the substitutes having recovered from injury.
Tottenham made an impressive start to their final home game and were three up inside 37 minutes against a poor Villa team. Spurs dominated from the start, playing positively and could have been head before Paulinho scored after 13 minutes 52 seconds, Spurs first Premier League goal inside the opening 15 minutes this season. It was good inter-passing which brought the goal with Christian Eriksen, Paulinho, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Harry Kane linking before Paulinho received the ball in the area. His first effort was blocked by the goalkeeper but the Brazilian followed up to place the ball into an empty net.
Paulinho
In a bright start, Spurs had a chance after 30 seconds with Kane playing in Adebayor but the goalkeeper came out to claim the ball at his feet. After 5 minutes, good build up play saw an Adebayor cross from the left headed into the goalkeeper’s hands by Kane. On 10 minutes, a low cross from Adebayor from the other side was met at the near post by Kane but he was again foiled by the goalkeeper who blocked his shot.
In the three minutes immediately after the first goal Spurs had three chances to add to their lead. First Pauinho placed his shot wide after a cross played in by Kyle Naughton, then Adebayor had another opportunity to get behind the Villa defence and finally a cross by Kane was just ahead of Sigurdsson.
For a brief time Villa came out of defence and had some possession with a 22nd minute corner, flicked on at the near post causing Spurs some alarm. Five minutes later a shot was blocked by Danny Rose before Spurs took control again with a Rose cross taking a deflection requiring Brad Guzan to push it it for a corner. A minute on and an Eriksen cross was gathered by the keeper ahead of Paulinho.
Two goals in two minutes, sealed the win for Spurs. In the 35th minute Rose fed Eriksen who crossed from the bye-line. The ball was cleared but gathered by Rose inside the box and his cross was headed into his own net by Nathan Baker.
In the 37th minute, Eriksen played a corner to Sandro whose shot hit the arm of Agbonlahor for a clear penalty. Adebayor drove the shot high into the centre of the goal with Guzan diving to his right.
In the final minute of the half, a powerful header by Michael Dawson was well saved by Guzan and then Villa threatened with a shot which was driven just wide.
The second half was a low key affair with Tottenham content to pass the ball about and Villa relieved not to concede any further goals. Spurs’ play became casual and miss-placed passes were the most likely way that Villa were going to get anything from the game.
On the hour a long ball forward by Kyle Naughton was chased by Kane and brought a collision between him and Guzan on the edge of the penalty area. Which way would the decision go? The referee opted to penalise Kane for his challenge on the goalkeeper.
On 71 minutes Hugo Lloris collected a low dangerous cross into the area and Villa’s first shot on target didn’t arrive until the 80th minute a well-struck low effort by Delph which Lloris saved. Lloris was comfortable gathering crosses into his area as time was played out. During the last half an hour, Sherwood introduced the three young players who were on the bench. Veljkovic replaced Sandro after 62 minutes, Nabil Bentaleb came on for Paulinho (74 minutes) and Pritchard made his debut in the 82nd minute for Sigurdsson.
The win secured by the first half goals ensured Tottenham finished 6th and go into next season’s Europa League. They finished 5 points ahead of Manchester United and in any other of the past 24 seasons that United have been above them, that points difference would probably have seen Spurs as Champions.