Aston Villa produced a second-half performance to forget during their morale-sapping defeat to Tottenham on Sunday.
Unai Emery made lots of changes for Villa’s EFL Cup defeat to Crystal Palace, with several big guns rested, but it didn’t show in the capital.
Yes, Morgan Rogers opened the scoring for Villa and they went into the break leading, but the performance from both teams wasn’t convincing.
Then, minutes into the second half, Brennan Johnson equalised for Spurs following a wicked cross from Son Heung-min and it changed everything.
The home fans booed their players off the pitch at half-time, with the mood very frosty and frustrating towards the Spurs players.
But that Johnson goal was a game-changer, with Dominic Sokanke then going on to score a brace and James Maddison also scoring a free-kick.
Tim Sherwood slams Lucas Digne for blaming Aston Villa players during defeat to Tottenham
Lucas Digne has been a crucial player for Villa, but he can’t have much to shout about for how he performed against Spurs.
Yes, many will look towards why Son was able to cross the ball because he should have been closed down.
But Johnson was supposed to be Digne’s man and, according to Tim Sherwood, he was more ‘focused’ and ‘worried’ about Pedro Porro when the cross came in.
As a result, he let Johnson go and he proceeded to score, before Sherwood accused him of trying to blame his Aston Villa teammates for that goal, as he told Premier League Productions (03/11/24 at 4:05 pm).
“They are always going to be a threat, Tottenham, no matter what, you feel like they are always going to score goals,” said Sherwood.
“Son does brilliant here. The delivery is fantastic. Johnson drifts on the blind side of Digne. He doesn’t even see him. He has got Pedro Porro. That’s all he is focused about. It’s all he is worried about and he hasn’t even seen Johnson behind him.
“He is continually looking at Porro. His body shape is all wrong. Sonny is doing his work on the other side of the pitch. He just sneaks in behind him. Not once has he seen him. He sees him at the wrong time when he is celebrating. That’s the first time he sees him, then he throws his arms up and down and tries to blame someone else.”
Digne stats for Villa against Tottenham
Ian Maatsen is Villa’s back-up left-back and you wonder if he will now come into the XI for Villa’s Champions League trip to Club Brugge on Wednesday night.
You can’t be too harsh on Digne because, for large parts and going back to last season, he has been outstanding for the team.
But WhoScored rated the France international’s latest display at 6.5, with several Villa players putting on a poor showing.
| Key passes | PA% | Crosses | Total tackles | Clearances | Touches | Rating |
| 4 | 72.5 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 74 | 6.50 |
