Spurs 3 Aston Villa 1 post match thread.

[BoVillan esq]

Although we lost I don't miss the Championship one fucking bit.

Absolutely....

[Risso]

Just on train home.

That stadium is magnificent, but still suffers from terrible service thanks to abysmal staff.

Anyway, first half we looked more than decent and not sure Heaton had a save to make.

Engels was great, and Mings magnificent especially second half. He gots lots of admiring comments from the Spurs fans sat around us.

Midfield was poor second half and were completely overrun. Jota was crap and Wesley didn’t do much. Hourihane, Taylor and Elmo aren’t Premier League class and I hope they didn’t start due to some misplaced sense of loyalty from Smith.

[West Derby Villan]

Welcome to the premier league. Mistakes were made but I'm sure we'll learn from them and settle in. All in all I wasn't too disappointed because I thought we gave a good account of ourselves for 75 minutes and if we had taken our early chances we may have got something out of the game. Unfortunately we tired and got a bit sloppy. There were quite a few positives Heston, Engels, Trez, Wesley got better as the game progressed and SJM proved any doubters wrong. Looking forward to next week UTV

[Risso]

Oh and the ref was a ******.

[hilts_coolerking]

Anyway, first half we looked more than decent and not sure Heaton had a save to make.

From a Lucas Moura header right at the beginning.

[Three Spires Villa]

Did anyone else think Wes went down a bit to easy? maybe just me and thats fine, but overall hope he has better games

[Mister E]

Just back in the car. Thoughts...

Walking to the ground I had a fear we would be rolled over and be 3-0 down at half time. I was worried about the full backs and Hourihane. I also had echos of some absolute abject surrenders here.

First half surprised me, pleasantly. We competed. That's what is key for me, collectively, we competed. We were compact, had good shape and caused problems on the break. Scored a good goal, could have scored a couple more and grew in confidence.

Second half they upped the tempo and this caused us to contract and stretch the space up to Wesley and increase the distance the midfield needed to break out.

We didn't retain territory, the ball came back quicker and we had to work harder in defence. They forced errors. Grealish for one and they got a little bit of luck with the bounce of the ball, but the goals were coming. We couldn't find an answer and realistically, who expected us to?

It's not excusing or triumphing defeat. But since 2010 we've gone one way and they've gone the other. They're a very good side, brought a £60m player in and brought Eriksson off the bench.

We on the other hand have a number of players to blend in. Taylor, Elmo and Hourihane wont finish the season there for example. We'll get wiser and smarter.

Ground was good. Feels oddly compact. Absolute silence though. The old Lane used to be a bit noisy, but this one is a morgue.

That's a very succinct description of my day in north London

[villa `cross the mersey]

I note on the BBC stats page that we didn't win a corner in the game......so it wasn't possible to determine if our centre backs will be of any danger in  the opposition penalty area

[Ads]

Just back in the car. Thoughts...

Walking to the ground I had a fear we would be rolled over and be 3-0 down at half time. I was worried about the full backs and Hourihane. I also had echos of some absolute abject surrenders here.

First half surprised me, pleasantly. We competed. That's what is key for me, collectively, we competed. We were compact, had good shape and caused problems on the break. Scored a good goal, could have scored a couple more and grew in confidence.

Second half they upped the tempo and this caused us to contract and stretch the space up to Wesley and increase the distance the midfield needed to break out.

We didn't retain territory, the ball came back quicker and we had to work harder in defence. They forced errors. Grealish for one and they got a little bit of luck with the bounce of the ball, but the goals were coming. We couldn't find an answer and realistically, who expected us to?

It's not excusing or triumphing defeat. But since 2010 we've gone one way and they've gone the other. They're a very good side, brought a £60m player in and brought Eriksson off the bench.

We on the other hand have a number of players to blend in. Taylor, Elmo and Hourihane wont finish the season there for example. We'll get wiser and smarter.

Ground was good. Feels oddly compact. Absolute silence though. The old Lane used to be a bit noisy, but this one is a morgue.

Like saying what the weather was like today.
Ground was underwhelming. Like a poor ICC.

You've lost me.

[SoccerHQ]

Jota potential flat track bully? Can see him having better games where we are attacking and getting more of the ball.

It's tough coming on with 30 minutes left. Spurs were pretty much completely dominating at that point. I thought it would be a decent sub and give us more of the ball but we were basically sitting on our 18 box at that point.

From what I've seen in pre season Jota can be more than useful player in home games against opposition that come to defend. Will have to see how he fits into the strategy away from home.

It was the wrong sub for me in the match situation. It should have been Luiz for Conor at that point.

Wouldn't disagree with you on that one but at that point the ball wasn't sticking upfront at all so guess Dean just thought getting in Jota could relieve pressure a bit so could understand the logic.

[rob_bridge]

See a lot of positives despite the result. Hopefully all will have learned some lessons - Deano down. Eriksen was the game changer.

Probably Luiz for Conor at that point would have been my pick - who knows we may have lost 6.1 or won 2.0.

Look forward to seeing some more of the new bods.

Onwards

[danno]

I'll be concerned if in November we're conceding that sort of territory and possession to the likes of Burnley Palace Norwich etc.

First game in a new league for some of our players, first game in England for another bunch of players, first competitive game for Villa for a few in the squad.

Away from home to the Champions league finalists. A side that for the most part has played together for three or four consecutive seasons. Kane in his post match interview said he'd played with Ericksen for five years. That's an age in football. We only have one player left from our squad from three years ago!

There were despite the result some real positives to take from that, and if that's our teams starting point I'm still feeling cautiously optimistic.

[David_Nab]

And a word for Heaton. The save just before they scored was just outrageous.

It was.  And there was at least one other as well.  He was very very good overall, first half header notwithstanding.  Could do with working on his goal kicks though, several sailed out of play on the left touchline.

Untill the nick of Mings he was going to save the equaliser as will

[London Villan]

Welcome to the premier league. Mistakes were made but I'm sure we'll learn from them and settle in. All in all I wasn't too disappointed because I thought we gave a good account of ourselves for 75 minutes and if we had taken our early chances we may have got something out of the game. Unfortunately we tired and got a bit sloppy. There were quite a few positives Heston, Engels, Trez, Wesley got better as the game progressed and SJM proved any doubters wrong. Looking forward to next week UTV

Spot on.

[hilts_coolerking]

And a word for Heaton. The save just before they scored was just outrageous.

It was.  And there was at least one other as well.  He was very very good overall, first half header notwithstanding.  Could do with working on his goal kicks though, several sailed out of play on the left touchline.

Untill the nick of Mings he was going to save the equaliser as will

I didn't see a nick on that.