Aston Villa beat struggling Tottenham 3-2 as Spurs suffer worst start to a season since 2008

How the match unfolded

Tottenham dominated the opening stretch of the game and created several chances, but Aston Villa goalkeeper Zion Suzuki denied both Savio and Archie Gray. Despite their control of the ball, the hosts failed to score, and in first-half stoppage time Villa capitalised on an error by Andy Robertson at a corner — the ball fell to John McGinn, and after an effort from Boubacar Kamara, Manzambi turned it in from close range to make it 0-1. The same passage of play saw Micky van de Ven forced off after taking a blow to the face.

In the second half, Mohammed Kudus thought he had equalised for Tottenham, but the goal was ruled out for offside in the build-up involving Robertson. Shortly afterwards Villa extended their lead through a goal from Jackson after a long clearance from Suzuki, and in the 79th minute Emiliano Buendia struck a powerful effort from around 25 yards into the top corner. According to the BBC, a large number of Tottenham supporters began leaving the stadium before the final whistle and missed late attempts from Conor Gallagher and Van Hecke to close the gap — the match finished 2-3 to the visitors.

Crisis at Tottenham

It was a difficult afternoon for manager Roberto De Zerbi, with Villa fans repeatedly chanting that he would be "sacked in the morning". De Zerbi accepted responsibility, explaining that his team conceded the opening goal while already down to ten men following a red card, which forced him to move Rodrigo Bentancur into central defence and shift Mateus Fernandes into midfield. He said he was unhappy with Fernandes' performance and added that several players — including James Maddison, Gallagher, Dominic Solanke and Savio — needed to work on their physical condition.

This was Tottenham's worst start to a top-flight season since 2008-09, when they also had just two points after five matches — a campaign that ended with manager Juande Ramos being sacked. Despite spending roughly £302m in the summer transfer window, including £100m on Sandro Tonali and £85m on Mateus Fernandes, the club sits 19th in the table. Former striker Glenn Murray urged patience with De Zerbi, pointing to improved underlying statistics in recent games, while TNT pundit Joe Cole questioned the club's transfer business and said Tottenham could not be ruled out of a relegation battle.

Aston Villa, who have invested more than £250m rebuilding their squad this summer, secured their first league win of the season after three defeats in their opening four matches.