Aston Villa beats toothless Spurs 2-0 in Premier League | Soccer
LONDON (AP) — Aston Villa continued their resurgence under Unai Emery with a 2-0 away win over Tottenham in the Premier League on Sunday.
Emiliano Buendia capitalized on an error by Hugo Lloris in the Spurs goal to open the scoring and Douglas Luiz doubled the advantage to secure a second straight league win for Villa.
Tottenham have suffered a run of disappointing results with just two wins in the club’s last seven games, undermining their efforts to break into the top four.
Villa’s win extended Emery’s unbeaten record against Tottenham to four games and inflicted more misery on Antonio Conte’s side, who have conceded first in their last 10 matches and have now fallen to the fifth in the Premier League table.
Spurs struggled to create chances throughout and the players were booed after a third home defeat in their last five games.
While Tottenham have been boosted by the return of World Cup finalists Cristian Romero and Lloris, Dejan Kulusevski has become the latest player unavailable for Conte due to a minor muscle injury.
Romero’s compatriot Emiliano Martinez was also at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium but was only named on the Villa bench a fortnight after his exploits at Lusail.
The visitors started the brighter side and Ollie Watkins nearly gave Villa the lead when he ran to the left, but the striker fired his shot wide from 14 yards.
It was not a harbinger with a lackluster first half with as many yellow cards as shots.
Each of Tottenham’s three centre-backs received bookings in a reckless nine-minute spell with Ben Davies looking lucky after throwing himself into a tackle with Ashley Young.
Chances had been scarce before Young was well placed to clear Harry Kane’s header from the line in the 40th minute after Ivan Perisic rounded Robin Olsen in the Villa goal.
The occasion awoke Conte’s side with Son Heung-min throwing off his protective mask mid-half, curling a free-kick into the arms of the Sweden keeper soon after.
Despite reaching the break unconcerned, Tottenham’s habit of falling behind continued five minutes into the second half.
Lloris was at fault in his first appearance since the World Cup final and Buendia took advantage.
Luiz’s shot from close range was reversed by Lloris and the alert Watkins reacted quickest to hit Buendia, who slotted in from close range to help make up for his disappointment in Qatar after failing to make the squad Argentina.
Perisic sent an effort over the bar moments later before Conte turned to his limited options on the bench and introduced Ryan Sessegnon in place of Bryan Gil after struggling to make an impact on his first Premier start League.
Spurs’ other full-back Matt Doherty prevented Villa from doubling their tally with 64 minutes on the clock when his sliding tackle thwarted Watkins.
Kane shot wide on the half-volley soon after before making a costly mistake to allow the opposing team to double their advantage.
Boubacar Kamara took possession of the Spurs striker and John McGinn traded passes with Luiz, who headed home to set off chants from the local faithful against Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy.
Conte made a flurry of late substitutions with Pape Sarr on his debut and Djed Spence earning a rare appearance, but they proved futile with boos greeting the full-time whistle.
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