With pressure continuing to build on Thomas Frank, the embattled coach asserted in midweek that Tottenham Hotspur were going to go all in on their quest to secure their first FA Cup in 35 years. With an unfortunate
early round tie against fellow Premier League side Aston Villa, Spurs instead fell victim to a third round exit.
With Spurs in the midst of yet another injury crisis, Frank named probably the strongest side he could: Kevin Danso came in for the suspended Cristian Romero, while Ben Davies provided passing down the left. The injured Rodrigo Bentancur and Lucas Bergvall were replaced by Wilson Odobert and Archie Gray, respectively, while Richarlison started up top. The real surprise though came via the bench, with both Destiny Udogie and Dominic Solanke making their returns from injury. Unai Emery named a strong side for Villa as well, rotating only at striker and goalkeeper, clearly viewing the competition as an opportunity to secure the Birmingham side a trophy of their own.
The first half was hard to watch for Spurs fans. With the Lilywhites utterly passive in and out of possession, Aston Villa controlled the play as Spurs looked like passengers in their own stadium. An early injury to Boubacar Kamara, replaced by Youri Tielemans, didn’t slow Villa down either, as they opened the scoring after 22 minutes. An aggressive pass by John McGinn into the feet of Donyell Malen sucked in both Pedro Porro and Kevin Danso, when the latter probably should have dropped off. Instead, there were acres of space created on Spurs’ right upon which Emiliano Buendia capitalized. His run was found by Malen and Buendia finished confidently over Guglielmo Vicario.
The negatives didn’t stop there either. Richarlison soon pulled up with what appeared to be a hamstring injury, with Randal Kolo Muani his replacement, and then Villa added insult to injury through Morgan Rogers just before the half-time break. Buendia and Malen were involved again, this time down Spurs’ left, with the Villa attackers playing a one-two with Buendia attacking the penalty area. The Argentine then showed good awareness to flick the ball back to the incoming Rogers, who finished from the penalty spot and doubled Aston Villa’s lead.
Things thankfully started looking a bit brighter in the second half. Kolo Muani hustled well to win the ball Lamare Bogarde in midfield, before bursting forward and finding Odobert in his stride with an inch-perfect pass down his right. The Frenchman swept home his finish with aplomb and all of a sudden Spurs were back in the match from nowhere, allowing Spurs fans a momentary respite. Villa weren’t far from restoring their lead to two goals, however, with only a heroic last-ditch block on the line by Pedro Porro preventing Buendia from scoring via a scuffed effort.
Xavi Simons soon looked to have equalized, latching on to a pass through from Kolo Muani before rounding keeper Marco Bizot and finishing calmly, only for the offside flag to be raised. Frank made a number of attacking substitutions to try and capitalize on the momentary momentum shift, but it wasn’t to be. Simons’ offside goal was Spurs’ last chance of note and Tottenham Hotspur exited their second cup competition of the season thanks to a 1-2 loss.
Reactions
- I was thinking during the match that Frank was going to suffer Martin Jol’s fate: sacked at half-time. That first half was unbelievably poor. Frank really is a dead man walking at this point.
- Things got better in the second half, but that was partially just a function of Villa dropping off, happy to sit on a two-goal lead. As soon as Spurs scored, Villa sprung back to life and the Lilywhites basically were unable to create anything further.
- Subbing off one of your best players in Mathys Tel for an academy striker is a choice.
- There were some interesting tactical tweaks though: Archie Gray was used to split the center backs in build-up and out of possession, not dissimilar to how Mauricio Pochettino used to use Eric Dier. We got to see a bit more of Gray’s passing range, which wasn’t terrible… but the front four were so out of sync that nothing was ever likely to come from his long balls.
- Yet another injury. Richy is now the latest to hit the treatment room. At least Dominic Solanke is now available? Yay, I guess.
- The interplay between the Villa front four on both of their goals is something I would love to see at Spurs but just feels impossible at the moment. Frank seems to have zero plans in attack, with players often running into one another, mistiming runs, and unaware of their teammates. It’s a mess.
- Silver linings: at least this cup exit means fewer Spurs matches to watch now, as watching Spurs currently seems less preferable to just rubbing sand into one’s eyes.
- Spurs finally have a respite now in the fixture list: they have a week off until they host a struggling West Ham side. If that doesn’t go well, I’d say it’s curtains for Frank (if he isn’t fired this week).
- COYS.
