Tottenham Wins, Ends Three-Game Winless Streak

A win was a must for Tottenham to keep pace with Leicester City, but it didn’t come easy against Aston Villa though.

For the first 45 minutes, Tottenham dominated Aston Villa and looked well on their way to blow the Lions out with a rout of at least three to four goals or more. However some questionable decisions to shoot from distance and passes that got intercepted halted Spurs’ progress of scoring early and often.

It didn’t help that Villa came alive in this game even if they weren’t threatening enough with the chances they had, unlike Spurs who at least had a few shots on goal.

What was being touted as a difficult game even though Aston Villa is last in the Premier League proved true until the stroke of half-time.

With Tottenham finally deciding to reduce the amount of long range efforts and tighten up their passing in the attacking third to connect with teammates, Dele Alli would be fouled on his way to the penalty box.

A quick restart ensued and Alli would find Harry Kane streaking down the middle of the pitch unmarked before sloting his shot past Brad Guzan into the bottom righthand corner off of his left foot.

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To take a 1-0 lead into the break meant a lot to Mauricio Pochettino’s side who created plenty of chances but couldn’t break through. Seeing Aston Villa not give up made things a bit more difficult, but it was expected for a club trying to survive regulation.

The start of the second half was a brief scare for Spurs as the Lions carried over their determination to score in the opening 30 seconds once the game got underway.

Although, it was short lived and three minutes after scoring at the stroke of half-time, Kane would double Tottenham’s lead with a brace. By now, the game looked over like it should have in the first half if Spurs put away some of their earlier chances.

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Then, out of nowhere, the final five minutes of the game before stoppage time was added proved to be an even bigger scare than the opening 30 seconds of the second half.

Wherein Joleon Lescott and Rudy Gestede (who had chances in the first half) missed two golden opportunities in front of the net as both players would hit the post and crossbar respectively.

Had Villa been able to put away two goals in a span of five minutes, what once would have been considered three points in the bag by the start of the second half could have become another bad outing in Tottenham’s past four games. Three of which were in the Premier League including this match.

But thankfully that didn’t happen and now Tottenham can rest easy following their 2-0 win. Of course, the job isn’t done just yet in the Premier League with eight games remaining and being two points away from first place.

Next: Matchday: Aston Villa 0-2 Tottenham

A tough game is coming up this Thursday with the second leg against Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League and then an in-form Bournemouth. And with Mauricio Pochettino’s B-side selection that was chosen, is it possible that he does that once again to get ready for another difficult match-up on short rest even if they’re at home?

That remains to be seen, but it should be noted that players will have to be rested because following Bournemouth are three challenging fixtures against Liverpool, Manchester United and Stoke City.

So, if Pochettino picks a weak starting eleven in the Europa League again, it’s obvious that he has chosen the Premier League now as his priority.