Tottenham Face Villa In The Pick Of This Weekend’s Premier League Action
Two teams with lofty ambitions before the season started, but who have struggled across their opening four games, meet at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as the hometown Spurs welcome Aston Villa in what is already looking like a crucial game for both teams.
With Spurs 17th and Villa 19th in the table, the need for maximum points for both teams is obvious, but both have had major upheaval over the course of the summer and both Roberto De Zerbi and Unai Emery can point to that as a major reason for their teams ails this campaign.
Spurred On By A Summer of Change
For Tottenham, this past summer saw their owners oversee a big spend to bring in the players that manager De Zerbi wanted.
Sandro Tonali (Newcastle), Mateus Fernandez (West Ham), Savinho (Man City), Jean-Paul Van Hecke (Brighton) and Tosin Adarabioyo (Chelsea) all arrived for a combined value of well over £300m.
Add to that free agent signings Marcos Senesi (Bournemouth), Andy Robertson (Liverpool) and Martin Dubravka (Newcastle) plus the loans of Omar Marmoush (Man City) and Mikhailo Mudryk (Chelsea) and it is easy to see why De Zerbi’s team may be struggling with a lack of understanding over these opening weeks of the campaign.
After two defeats, Spurs have managed to draw both their last two league games, but are yet to score a league goal.
Villa’s Victors Plundered
Aston Villa’s Europa League triumph last season was the final act for Unai Emery’s Villa V1.0. Since then, six key first teamers from that team have moved on to pastures new.
Youri Tielemans (Manchester United), Emi Martinez (Chelsea), Lucas Digne (Paris St. Germain), Ollie Watkins (Al Hilal), Ezri Konsa (Arsenal) and Morgan Rodgers (Chelsea) in sales approaching £300m.
Villa have invested that money in a raft of new signings, totalling a similar amount to that they recouped. Incoming stars include Johan Manzambi (Freiburg), Nicolas Jackson (Chelsea), Ibrahim Mbaye (PSG), Joao Gomes (Wolves), Zion Suzuki (Parma), Taylor Harwood-Bellis (Southampton, Matteo Ruggeri (Atletico Madrid), Modou Cisse (LASK) and Leon Goretzka (Bayern Munich) have all been signed permanently.
They have been joined by loanees Alejandro Garnacho (Chelsea) and Aaron Wan-Bissaka (West Ham).
As yet, Unai Emery’s Aston Villa V2.0 have yet to find their feet in the Premier League, meaning this battle between two out of sorts teams is vital to both for similar reasons.
Match Data
After four games, Villa lie in 19th position with just one point. Spurs are just two places above them in 17th with two points, however De Zerbi’s team have yet to find the net in the Premier League this season.
One positive for Villa fans is that they have won four of the last six against Spurs, including a 2-1 win at this ground last season in the league, a result they also repeated in the FA Cup third round in January.
This fixture also has a history of goals. Five of the last six have seen over 2.5 goals scored and both teams have found the net in five of the last six too.
Spurs are the 19/20 favourites to win the game, with Villa an appealing 27/10, while the draw is a 5/2 option.
Our Pick?
We think that the both teams to score and over 2.5 goals is the best option to back here. Both defences are looking fragile and both teams are not in good form. In a fixture with a history of goals, that option looks the best value bet.
The game will kick off at 12.30pm on Saturday 19th September.
