Tottenham Hotspur played hosts to Aston Villa at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium earlier this evening looking to follow on the footsteps of Liverpool and Manchester City by making a winning start to the season. Spurs suffered an early setback in the 9th minute when John McGinn scored for the Villans. Mauricio Pochettino’s men fought hard but couldn’t manage to find the equaliser in the first half.
However, they pushed on even more in search of a goal in the second half and finally made the breakthrough when Tanguy Ndombele found the back of the Villa net with his powerful strike. Harry Kane scored the winning goal soon after when he came up with a clever finish from close range. The English striker made the points secure in the 90th minute when he struck again to hand Spurs a hard-fought 3-1 win on the day.
Let’s take a look at how each Tottenham player fared during the match against the Villans.
GK: Hugo Lloris – 6/10
The French keeper made a good save in the first half and hardly had anything to do in the second.
RB: Kyle Walker-Peters – 7/10
The youngster was a good outlet for Spurs down the right flank. He made some driving runs in the opposition half.
CB: Toby Alderweireld – 6.5/10
The Belgian centre-back was a commanding presence inside his own box and played some accurate long passes to release his teammates in the offensive end of the field.
CB: Davinson Sánchez – 5/10
He made a sloppy start to the game and was average in the first half. However, he bounced back and put in a solid performance in the second.
LB: Danny Rose – 5.5/10
The English full-back was at fault for John McGinn’s goal in the first half. However, he never gave up and helped his team complete the turnaround in the second.
CM: Tanguy Ndombele – 8.5/10
The French debutant found a way to score the all-important equaliser which gave Spurs the platform to go on and snatch the win. It was a very impressive debut performance from Ndombele.
CM: Harry Winks – 6/10
He worked hard for his side and made a few well-timed tackles at the centre of the park. However, he was not as effective going forward.
CM: Moussa Sissoko – 5.5/10
The French midfielder was full of running and effort but lacked the cutting edge in the final third.
CAM: Erik Lamela – 5/10
The Argentine prospect has to add more end product to his game. He had a few good touches on the ball but nearly didn’t do enough to drag Spurs back into the contest.
ST: Lucas Moura – 7/10
The Brazilian forward made some dangerous runs behind the Villa defence. However, he did not have his shooting boots on during the game.
ST: Harry Kane – 8.5/10
The English striker scored two goals in the final quarter of the encounter to hand his team a crucial opening weekend win in the Premier League.
Substitutes:
CM: Christian Eriksen – 7.5/10
The Dane completely changed the game after coming on in the second half. He whipped in some inviting crosses into the Aston Villa box which helped his team maintain pressure on the Villans in the final third.
CM: Georges-Kevin Nkoudou – N/A
Not enough time to make an impact.
CM: Oliver Skipp – N/A
He came on to run the clock down for the home side.
