English Premier League FT Report: Tottenham v Aston Villa – Van Der Vaart double gives Tottenham win
Rafael van der Vaart, Tottenham's last signing in the summer transfer window, was the key player in tonight’s clash which saw Tottenham emerge victorious over Aston Villa in the Premier League.
The Dutchman clinched a brace which sealed his team’s two goals to one victory. The opening goal of the match was scored by Marc Albrighton, who scored his first goal for Villa in the Premier League on the sixteenth minute
mark.
Van Der Vaart managed to pull off an equalizer in the dying stages of the first half and then went on to score the match winner about fifteen minutes from the full time whistle. Thanks to this win, Tottenham are now back
in the top six and are sitting comfortably in the fifth spot.
Tottenham were without several key players for tonight’s game and the likes of Tom Huddlestone were made to play as makeshift central defenders.
The first goal was scored thanks to some brilliant play by Emile Heskey, who ran past a couple of defenders before squaring a ball across the face of the goal, which was then tapped in on the far post by the ever-present
Albrighton.
That goal, however, meant that so far Tottenham had failed to keep a single clean sheet in all the matches they played so far this season.
Villa tried to get something out of the game late in the second half as Stephen Ireland and Barry Bannan were brought on to try and change the way things were going. However both the players failed to make any real impact
on the game and as the clock ran out, Tottenham emerged victorious.
This was definitely not the start that Gerard Houllier hoped to have with his new Villa side, but the manager is sure to get back to the drawing board and try and chalk up some new ideas which could see the team return to
their former glory.
Tottenham on the other hand, have started to emerge as a one man team. They were once a well oiled fluid machine, but now seem to be overly reliant on their Dutch sensation. This is not necessarily a bad thing. However, if
Van Der Vaart does manage to get injured, it could prove to be disastrous for the team who would loose the only dimension to their play that they have at the moment.
Tags: