Dominic Solanke’s second-half brace for Tottenham downed an abject Aston Villa showing in the Premier League on Sunday.
Aston Villa were knocked out of the EFL Cup by Crystal Palace in midweek, whilst Spurs beat Manchester City and sent out a statement to the rest of the remaining pack.
Yes, the XI that played against Palace was much-changed, but a defeat is a defeat at the end of the day and the defence was at fault once again.
Ten Premier League games in and Aston Villa have shipped 15 goals – only one clean sheet – only seven other sides have conceded more and they are all sitting in the bottom half.
The Midlands side beat Tottenham at their ground last season. In that game, Emery watched his players come from behind to secure all three points.
But this time around, it was the turn of Ange Postecoglou’s side and Solanke was at the heart of it.
Dominic Solanke says Tottenham ‘exploited’ Aston Villa
There wasn’t much in it in the first half, with Aston Villa making use of Tottenham’s woes and issues from corners.
Morgan Rogers opened the scoring for Villa against Tottenham and then everything changed during the second 45 minutes.
Solanke admitted that his side needed to ‘adapt’ because their opponents were making it ‘quite difficult’ for them, as he told Sky Sports Premier League (03/11/24 at 4:00 pm).
But he was brutally honest with the second-half performance and how his team ‘exploited’ Villa.
“I think it’s adapting a bit,” responded Solanke on what needed to change for Tottenham in the second half to the way that they were playing.
“It was quite difficult in the first half. But, at half-time, we had time to regroup and discuss what we could do better and we exploited that in the second half.”
Solanke comes back to haunt Unai Emery’s Aston Villa again
Certain players like scoring against certain teams, but then others, like Solanke, like to score against specific managers also.
Unfortunately, for Villa, Solanke has come back to haunt them again after doing so in Bournemouth colours last season.
In the previous games, he only picked up one point, but now he can celebrate his goals with a win.
According to OptaJoe on Twitter that’s four goals for Solanke against Emery’s Villa and he will be lining up his diary to see when Spurs play the Champions League side next.
