Aston Villa came from behind to win 2-1 in an end-to-end thriller at Tottenham Hotspur, leapfrogging their hosts to climb into the top four, level on points with Liverpool.
Giovani Lo Celso gave Spurs a deserved lead in his first start of the season, but Pau Torres headed in an equaliser just before half-time, and Ollie Watkins completed the turnaround for Villa in the second half with his seventh Premier League goal of the season.
Spurs were left left to rue a host of missed chances, with Son Heung-min having a particularly frustrating day as he had THREE goals ruled out for offside as the north Londoners suffered a third straight defeat while Manchester United won to go sixth.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Man City
MCI
|
38 | +62 | 91 |
| 2 |
Arsenal
ARS
|
38 | +62 | 89 |
| 3 |
Liverpool
LIV
|
38 | +45 | 82 |
| 4 |
Aston Villa
AVL
|
38 | +15 | 68 |
| 5 |
Spurs
TOT
|
38 | +13 | 66 |
| 6 |
Chelsea
CHE
|
38 | +14 | 63 |
How the match unfolded
After an impeccably-observed pre-match tribute to Terry Venables, who passed away on Sunday after both playing for and managing Spurs, his former club started with a real sense of urgency.
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Dejan Kulusevski hit the woodwork within three minutes, and 10 minutes later Son fired over the crossbar from 10 yards out after great work down the wing by Brennan Johnson.
In between all of this, Villa failed to capitalise on some good chances of their own - and were made to pay in the 21st minute when Lo Celso’s sweetly-struck shot deflected off Diego Carlos to put Spurs in front.
Villa thought they had levelled almost immediately, but VAR revealed that Watkins was offside and his goal was overturned.
A memorable first half ended in frantic fashion, starting with another disallowed goal, this time for Spurs. Son raced onto a through ball and finished deftly past Emiliano Martinez but was flagged offside. Then, deep in stoppage time, Villa were level as Torres headed in from Douglas Luiz’s free-kick, leaving Spurs cursing a host of missed opportunities.
Spurs began the second half in the same fashion in which they dominated the first, with Son again being denied a goal by the offside flag.
Within two minutes, Villa had turned the match on its head and were 2-1 up as Watkins came short to receive a pass from Youri Tielemans before spinning to create some space for himself and finishing into the bottom corner.
Spurs pushed hard for the equaliser but Ben Davies couldn’t convert a free header from a corner, and Martinez made two superb saves within seconds, denying Johnson at close range before diving to tip Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg's strike round the post.
Finally, Son was denied a goal by the offside flag for a third time after Pedro Porro’s shot came back off the woodwork.
Villa held firm to secure the points and continue their fine start to the season, while Spurs will be looking to bounce back when they travel to Manchester City next weekend.
Spurs Report | Aston Villa Report
See: Garnacho scores wonder goal as Man Utd move into top six
Did you know?
Aston Villa will end a day in the Premier League’s top four positions at least 13 games into a season for the first time since December 27, 2009.
Spurs are only the fifth side in Premier League history to lose three consecutive games despite opening the scoring in each match, and first since Leicester City in December 2014, whose third game was also against Aston Villa.
Among all Premier League players, only Erling Haaland (18) has scored more goals across all competitions than Ollie Watkins (12) this season.
Pedro Porro has assisted six goals in the Premier League to date. The only defenders with more assists in the competition than the Spaniard since he debuted in February are Trent Alexander-Arnold and Kieran Trippier (both nine).
Bruno Fernandes (17) and James Maddison (16) are the only midfielders to have been directly involved in more Premier League goals than Aston Villa’s Douglas Luiz in 2023 (15 - 10 goals, five assists).