JOSE GETS A VIN & TONIC
No thrills and no smiles but Vinicius & Kane grind out vital victory for Jose
Vinicius 29, Kane pen 68
0 2 JOSE MOURINHO barely seemed to celebrate Carlos Vinicius’ first-half opener.
Perhaps he was just relieved at watching Tottenham score against the run of play after a lacklustre opening.
But the under-pressure Portuguese head coach will not need any reminding about the significance of this win. Victory lifts Spurs up to sixth in the table, one point behind West Ham in fifth and three off fourth-placed Chelsea.
But it also stops Mourinho’s stock slumping even lower after successive dire defeats to north London rivals Arsenal and Dinamo Zagreb.
It was far from a fluent display though as he continues to struggle to get the best out of his attacking options, with Gareth Bale an unused substitute.
But at least this Spurs side showed fight, bottle and desire, which were all alarmingly absent in Croatia in their 3-0 second leg Europa League exit on Thursday night.
The visitors were hugely helped by Villa talisman Jack Grealish missing his latest game after putting off his comeback until after the international break.
Yet again Villa toiled in his absence as their England new boy up front Ollie Watkins found few chances.
England’s established forward Harry Kane sealed the victory by winning and converting a second-half penalty. And
Mourinho must have been delighted by some brave blocks by his side to prevent Villa getting back into the game in a late rally.
He had made his displeasure clear about their Dinamo Zagreb collapse with seven changes for this match.
Villa made the more composed start but failed to create any clearcut chances without Grealish, who is at least back in training now.
Matt Targett got round the back of the Spurs defence in the 20th minute to latch on to Bertrand Traore’s cross but Mourinho’s men cleared their lines.
Despite an unconvincing start, Spurs took the lead in the 29th minute when Vinicius (left) tapped in for his first Premier League goal and his 10th in all competitions.
It came from a poor clearance from keeper Emiliano Martinez to a long ball under pressure from Vinicius, who was a real handful.
Lucas Moura latched on to it, exchanged passes with Kane and crossed to leave Vinicius
with a tap-in. The Brazilian celebrated with glee following what was his team’s belated first shot on target.
He had another sight of goal in the 36th minute but this time Ezri Konsa made a very good block.
After the break Martinez redeemed himself with a decent save to his left to deny Kane.
Villa tried to level as Trezeguet had a shot blocked by Joe Rodon from Morgan Sanson’s cut-back. Sub Anwar El Ghazi then shot wide with an effort from outside the box.
Yet Spurs made it 2-0 to seal the win after Cash caught Kane to concede a needless penalty on 68 minutes.
The Spurs skipper stepped up to bury a right-foot spot-kick into the corner for his 27th of the season as Martinez went the wrong way.
This time Mourinho was up off the bench clenching his fists as he must have sensed it would secure the points.
The match ended up highlighting Villa’s shortcomings more as they have now won just one in eight games without Grealish since being promoted in 2019.