Tottenham’s New Year got off to the worst possible start with a 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa in the Premier League. Spurs looked lifeless and went from bad to worse as the game progressed with the Lillywhites now needing a response against Crystal Palace.
Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris spilled a shot from Douglas Luiz which allowed Emi Buendía to pounce and give Villa the lead at a time the game was perfectly balanced.
Tottenham then tried to look for a response, just as they had done for their last nine games- but it was Villa who took advantage of their desire to get back into the game with a well crafted goal that saw Douglas Luiz finish impressively off impressive to seal the win.
Unai Emery has never lost a game to Tottenham and there was a feeling thatches was always going to be a tough one but not even win would have seen the dominated display fromhis side. They looked well drilled and just cut off the channels which Tottenham are normally so good at running into.
The result ends a run of nine games where Tottenham have always conceded the first goal but find a way back to earn something from it. Injury to Dejan Kulusevski just hours to the game would have disrupted plans but there is no hiding from the fact Spurs were quite poor here.
Here is how we rated every Tottenham player out there today.
1. Hugo Lloris
Disappointing return to the team. His mistake led to the first goal, shocking afternoon-4
2. Son Heung-Min
He was so ineffective that he took out the mask that he’d been wearing all game. Not that his performance improved massively after that-4
3. Matt Doherty
Slipped at the vital moment when he took out his man, otherwise just had a quiet game-4.5
4. Ben Davies
Came back into the team and would have been happy with how he kept his side of the pitch locked down-5