Jose’s got Spurs purring
SON WINS THRILLER AT VILLA
By the time Son heung- min disappeared down the tunnel, the rain had ceased, the clouds had parted, the skies were blue and his name was ringing in the air.
tottenham supporters hailed Son, two-goal hero and the decisive factor in this turbulent and windswept affair which was littered with contradictions and another outbreak of VAR fury. It felt like the perfect accompaniment to a storm-tossed weekend.
take Son, who had a penalty saved at the end of the first half only to squeeze in the rebound and missed three wonderful chances as Spurs pursued a third goal. to his credit he refused to abandon hope and there he was, ready to pounce when the final opportunity came his way to settle the game.
It arrived in the fourth minute of stoppage time, courtesy of a terrible mistake by Bjorn engels, the Aston Villa centre half who lurched from zero to hero and back again during the course of 90 minutes.
It was engels who conceded a penalty at the end of the first half with an ill-judged slide on Steven Bergwijn, from which Son indirectly gave the visitors a 2-1 lead.
then Villa’s Belgian defender, recalled because tyrone Mings was out with tonsillitis, conjured up an equaliser, towering above toby Alderweireld at a corner to head in his first goal for the club.
Dean Smith’s team resisted stoically and Pepe Reina made a series of fine saves as they tried to protect what would have been a valuable point in their relegation battle. But it escaped their grasp with the error by engels in the final seconds.
Davinson Sanchez launched the ball aimlessly forward and the Belgian cocked his foot as he prepared to trap it beneath his studs, only for the ball to skid under his boot. Son was on to it in a flash, dashing clear and into the box to work out his angles and beat Reina with a low side-footer into the far corner.
tottenham supporters rejoiced as their team climbed to fifth, only a point behind Chelsea, their next opponents in the Premier League. Villa fans were stunned into silence and Jack Grealish, having made his case for an england call-up by outshining Dele Alli, tried to
console Engels, who was not the only Belgian experiencing a wild churn of emotions.
Spurs defender Alderweireld, excused from training on Friday after the birth of his son Jace, had gifted Villa the lead with an own goal in the ninth minute. Anwar El Ghazi delivered from the right and Alderweireld, under pressure from Mbwana Samatta and perhaps confused by swirling gusts of wind, turned the ball into his own net at the near post.
It summed up Spurs’ start to the game. They were sluggish and careless on the ball and might easily have slipped further behind had Villa been more clinical. Grealish tormented Serge Aurier in the first 20 minutes without finding the net, curling one effort wide and pulling passes square for team-mates rather than going for goal.
Ben Davies denied Douglas Luiz and Alderweireld blocked from Samatta, who then went close with a header. Villa limited Jose Mourinho’s side to little more than the occasional counter-attack but Spurs improved and forced an equaliser in the 27th minute.
Son’s corner was not cleared and when it spun towards Alderweireld he summoned an exquisite finish, adjusting his feet quickly to smash a halfv o l l e y past Reina on the turn from an awkward angle.
Hugo Lloris saved from
El Ghazi but Tottenham were on top as the first half ended. Kortney Hause denied Alli, Engels blocked the follow-up from Bergwijn and there was a pause as VAR Jon Moss checked for a handball. The decision went Villa’s way but Moss ruled against them moments later when he overturned Martin Atkinson’s decision after a sliding tackle by Engels on Bergwijn. Smith branded it a ‘ farcical decision’ and fumed: ‘I don’t get it. Martin Atkinson gives a goal-kick and everyone in the stadium believes it’s a goal-kick, even their player. ‘I said to Martin, I don’t blame you but if you are brave enough, go to that monitor. The criterion is clear and obvious. That’s not clear and obvious.’
The Holte End chorused ‘It’s not football any more’ as Son prepared to take the penalty. Reina saved, diving to his right, but Son won the race to the rebound and poked the ball past the 37- year- old keeper with the outside of his right foot.
The second half unfolded in a similar frantic fashion. Engels ended a dangerous run by Bergwijn at one end and El Ghazi volleyed straight at Lloris at the other.
Engels hauled his team level and Reina kept Spurs at bay with a sequence of saves to frustrate Alli and Son, before the Korean pounced to settle the game.
It was the 50th goal conceded by Aston Villa in 26 Premier League games this season, more than anyone else. Goal difference could haunt them, but it was the lost point which left them smarting.
‘It was a sore one,’ said Smith. ‘Tough to take because there was a lot of personality in that performance. We didn’t deserve to lose.’