This was Tottenham’s second defeat to Aston Villa this season and it is becoming increasingly hard to imagine Thomas Frank being in charge when the teams come together a third time in May. A performance that put an end to any realistic chance of a trophy this season, it fell well below the expectations of a furious crowd. That their opponents offer the diametric opposite of Tottenham’s dysfunction can only have heightened the sting.
Goals from Emi Buendía and Morgan Rogers put this tie to bed for Villa in the first half, Wilson Odobert’s strike after half-time bringing a closeness to the scoreline that was not reflected in the general play. A scuffle on the field at the final whistle involving Rogers, João Palhinha and a host of Tottenham players only added further sourness to the occasion.
To suggest the tone of the match was set before a ball had even been kicked is an assertion that can’t necessarily be proven. But it certainly felt that way in the ground: the lack of enthusiasm among the home support, as their team took the field to nothing more than polite applause, was then matched evenly by the efforts of Tottenham’s players on the field.
Whether Frank’s charges were scared, demoralised or simply disengaged, they lacked assertiveness from the start. Nominally pressing their opponents high, it was all done politely and with barely a challenge made. Unlikely to win their duels against a snarling Villa side on the best of days, Spurs did not even try. Unai Emery’s men, meanwhile, looked in the mood and did not need an invitation to stomp all over their hosts.
