A Glorious First-half Effort Came To Nought

Well, the match stats say a lot. Spurs had five shots on goal and four were successful. This is a side that has been a mean goal machine of late and full of confidence. Meanwhile, the Villa could have scored four before half-time, but a combination of their keeper and missed chances prevented that from happening.

Again, Villa started a little slow off the blocks and came to rue their start-of-match attitude. Time and again this season Villa have let in an early goal, and although the Spurs opener was a trifle fortunate after a totally wayward Kane shot re-bounded to Son, you have to hand it to Son that he is such a gifted finisher. There's something like Jimmy Greaves about his contribution and he ended with a well-deserved hat-trick.

But after the first 10 minutes, the Villa really took on the Spurs and kept on pressing them back into their half, time and time again. Spurs looked very much second-best for 35 minutes, but the lack of scoring confidence in Villa was there to see - plus Spurs' excellent keeper. With Villa working so hard Coutinho had time and chance to make a solid contribution, and he really bothered their defence.

The question at half-time was, "Can Villa keep it up?" We soon found out they couldn't. They had burnt themselves out and Spurs had used the break to re-consolidate. Again a relaxed Villa let them in for an early goal in the period and from then it was even more of a chasing game. Villa just did not look like the side they were in the first half and Bailey smashed wide a chance from a Spurs error. But that was late on and rather late for dreams of a comeback.

Against a lesser side, Villa would probably have won well today. Instead, this is the fourth defeat on the trot and, sadly, I'm not seeing the same Konsa these days. Perhaps he has lost some confidence and maybe the talk of him being shown the door is affecting him.

But the defence in general looks as though it needs tightening, plus the need for a genuine number 6. I was in fact a little surprised that Nakamba did not come on as soon as they scored their second today. He might have made a difference.

Now we have another two-week break. Our chances of finishing in the top 10 are evaporating and we have to beat Leicester to stand a chance of finishing there in our next match. Then comes an intense flurry of matches to finish the season.

Sad to see so many Villa fans going so early today after that terrific first-half performance. It was the most determined effort I have seen from a Villa side for a long time. Indeed, that kind of performance was, once upon a time, a normality.

UTV!