Aston Villa 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur (Buendia 90+6 | Gallagher 12’, Richarlison 25’)
VILLA PARK – Had you not watched a minute of this season’s Premier League and were told one of these teams were in a relegation dog-fight, and the other had all but confirmed Champions League football, you would have believed it. You might not have guessed which was which.
No real glory will be gleamed from survival, if Tottenham do get over the line. Yet for once, they were handed all the cards, courtesy of West Ham’s meek surrender at Brentford and Aston Villa’s weakened XI. Mind you, there is looking a gift horse in the mouth and there is still a danger of being gnashed to pieces. The universe owed Roberto De Zerbi this one.
Until now every aspect of his reign had felt fatefully cruel: the deflection at Sunderland, Brighton’s late equaliser, Xavi Simons’ ACL. Despair had become acceptance, that bubbled into something like hope, before crashing back down to its original form.
There is no translation for the noise that erupted from the visiting end at Villa Park after two goals in the first 25 minutes. Whatever you call it, the feeling had been long forgotten. Tottenham away, ole ole.
The technique was unlikely, the hero even more so. Conor Gallagher, whose start to north London life has been utter misery, peeled away from his strike at the edge of the box in as heady a disbelief as a Villa midfield shorn of its star power.
Unai Emery has a European semi-final first leg to avenge but the wrath of 40,000 Villains suggested they did not view this capitulation in the same way, Tyrone Mings dithering and Ross Barkley repeatedly dispossessed. By the hour mark Morgan Rogers had a passing accuracy rate of just 50 per cent.
But the most unrecognisable aspect in all this was Spurs’ dynamism. In spite of Xavi’s injury, which threatened to derail De Zerbi’s new tempo, it comes back to that word again – hope. It was to be found in their Brazilian No 9.
In the last half-century, whenever Tottenham have looked in genuine danger of relegation, it has never been for want of a goalscoring saviour.
In 1994, when they only confirmed their top-flight status in May, it was Teddy Sheringham. Four years later, Jurgen Klinsmann returned to yank them away from trouble.
Richarlison may not be considered in that pantheon. However, he is the closest thing today’s squad have to a proper firefighter. Once he had buried Mathys Tel’s cross for the second, he sunk to his knees for what might become the defining image of this torturous Tottenham campaign. It made the knock he suffered at the very end feel particularly brutal.
De Zerbi is managing an unprecedented injury crisis and worse, a kind of spiritual emergency. Richarlison’s 31st goal over four seasons is a reflection of his own injuries and struggles for consistency – Klinsmann, for perspective, hit 38 in 18 months over two spells.
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There is no serious analysis to be had in pondering why a team missing six of its attackers have struggled for goals. That is why Spurs are in this mess – before kick-off they averaged around 1.2 per game, lower than the Luton side relegated in 2024 and Leicester who went down in 2023 (both 1.3).
Whatever De Zerbi has locked into, who better to exemplify the change than Randal Kolo Muani – serenaded at the end of one of his best performances in a Spurs shirt.
West Ham must concede that their rivals’ new-found optimism – undimmed as it was by Emi Buendia’s late header – was partly of their own making. That belief is going to be even more valuable than the three points.