Tottenham’s wretched start to the Premier League season continued as Aston Villa held off a late fightback from the hosts to claim their first league win of the campaign.
Spurs were booed off at the final whistle and despite lavishing over £300m on new signings in the summer are already beginning to give the impression of a club in crisis, with this defeat meaning they have eclipsed the 2008-09 campaign which was their worst opening to a season in the Premier League.
Goals from Johan Manzambi, Nicolas Jackson and Emiliano Buendia saw Aston Villa’s campaign finally achieve lift-off.
Conor Gallagher’s late tap-in and Jan Paul van Hecke’s header, with the final touch of the game, came too late to make a meaningful difference to the result.
Roberto de Zerbi’s home side could point to key moments in the game going against them, with captain Micky van de Ven off the pitch receiving treatment when Villa’s record signing Manzambi prodded in the opener very much against the run of play.
VAR’s intervention on the hour mark also correctly denied them an equaliser, with Andy Robertson found to be offside by the slightest of margins in the build-up to Mohammed Kudus bundling the ball over the line from close range.
That gave Villa the impetus to go on and seal their first league win of 2026-27 in style.
Jackson, who was a threat throughout, brilliantly found the left corner from the edge of the box with Spurs defender Van Hecke backing off, and Argentine midfielder Buendia curled another superb effort into the same corner from even further out.
Those goals and an impressive first-half performance from visiting goalkeeper Zion Suzuki provided the visitors with a more than merited win to help them climb out of the bottom three and up to 15th, while Spurs are 18th.
