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Saturday, September 19, 2026

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Tottenham 2-3 Aston Villa: Winless Spurs drop into relegation zone while visitors secure first win of Premier League season

Report as Spurs suffer another defeat, making it their worst ever start to a Premier League campaign; Spurs only have two points and goal difference of -6, eclipsing their 2008-09 start (2 points, -3 goal difference)

· 792 words· updated September 19, 2026 at 02:27 PM

Roberto De Zerbi's expensively assembled side were hit by goals from Johan Manzambi, Nicolas Jackson and Emi Buendia which handed Villa an important win - their first of the season.

Both clubs had made slow starts to the new campaign after summer rebuilds and while Spurs had failed to score in four league fixtures.

Latest news and rumours: Tottenham | Aston Villa

Conor Gallagher at least got Spurs' first goal of the season late on, followed up by a Jan Paul van Hecke header, but it was nothing more than a consolation and too little too late.

After a bright start from Spurs where they forced Zion Suzuki into four saves inside the first 20 minutes, Villa hit Tottenham with a sucker punch - with captain Micky Van de Ven off the pitch after he took a whack to the face from Tyrone Mings, Manzambi fired in.

Spurs' goal drought appeared over on the hour mark when Sandro Tonali played in Andy Robertson and Mohammed Kudus poked in his cross, but VAR ruled it was offside.

Jackson then made it 2-0 by finding the bottom corner.

A wonderful effort by Buendia from 25 yards made the victory safe for Villa and sparked 'you're getting sacked in the morning' chants by the away faithful.

Ahead of the extended break, Spurs find themselves in the relegation zone and have only won five of their last 36 matches at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

"The pressure heats up," said former Tottenham defender Michael Dawson on Soccer Saturday .

"That's what happens when you finish 17th twice, you spend all this money, there's a huge expectation around the football club. I believed there was going to be a shift but when there isn't, it breeds and now, unfortunately, for Spurs, they've got three weeks to wait until the next game."

The key moments from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium...

9: DOUBLE SAVE! Savio has two bites of the cherry from inside the box but Suzuki reacts to both effort to keep Spurs at bay.

19: INJURY! Pedro Porro limps off, clearly frustrated having pulled what looked like a groin muscle. His replacement Archie Gray is then denied from the angle by Suzuki.

45: OUCH! Van de Ven suffers a nasty blow to his face after clearing a set piece and needs to leave the field to receive treatment.

45+3: GOAL! Villa take advantage of the extra-man by attacking down the left which results in Manzambi scoring his first goal for the club.

58: GOAL RULED OUT! Spurs think they've opened their account for the season through Kudus but Robertson was offside in the build-up, so VAR steps in to disallow the goal.

67: GOAL! Jackson doubles Villa lead, powering a shot into the corner after beating Van de Ven in a duel.

79: GOAL! Buendia puts the result beyond doubt with a stunning finish from 25 yards as Spurs fans head for the exit.

86: SPURS FINALLY SCORE! Sarcastic cheers inside the stadium as Gallagher pokes home from close range to end the Spurs drought.

90+6: GOAL! Van Hecke heads home for 3-2 but the referee blows for full-time just after the restart.

De Zerbi admits he 'didn't speak to players' after defeat

Spurs boss Roberto De Zerbi on the timing of the international break:

"Maybe it's better, I didn't speak with the players today because I didn't want to say anything.

"But the players who go with the national team they have to play, they have to work and the other players like Gallagher, Solanke, Tosin, Senesi, Savio for sure we have to work more because of the physical condition I didn't like in this game."

He added: "I'm very disappointed, very sad, very frustrated for the performance because we can't lose this game in this way, absolutely. We can't concede the second goal, we can't lose balance just because in the first half we are losing in the beginning of the second half.

"I spoke with the four attackers to use their heads calmly, play calm, play, enjoy, don't take risks. When we conceded the second goal it was incredible."

Villa boss Unai Emery speaking about the performances of Zion Suzuki and Nicolas Jackson:

"They are here for it. Their commitment to us, challenging themselves to achieve what we did before and replacing important players, is fantastic. But every player needs to understand how we can feel better collectively and how they can help us with their qualities, exploiting our best performance.

"Today, we made a clear step forward in improving that. Zion is maintaining the performance he showed before, and Jackson clearly improved from the previous matches. This is the way and the example of how he played."

What the result means and next fixtures...

Gathered from external sources. Rights to this text belong to whoever originally published it.