Tottenham 1-2 Aston Villa: match notes and instant analysis
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Photo by Paul Childs - Pool/Getty Images
Well, that was emphatically terrible. Tottenham Hotspur went up 1-0 over Aston Villa in front of 10,000 home fans for the first time all season, but then laid an egg thanks to a horrorshow of an afternoon from Sergio Reguilon. Steven Bergwijn put Tottenham up early with a fantastic shot that was leathered into the top corner after just seven minutes, but Reguilon had a hand in both Villa goals.
First, Reggie scored a spectacular own goal that would’ve been lovely if it weren’t in his own net. Then later he had two blocked clearances, the second of which fell to the feet of Ollie Watkins who powered it past Hugo. In truth, it could’ve been a lot worse; Villa ended up outshooting Spurs 20-10 and had a number of good attempts. Strangely, the xG map wasn’t as bad as I feared.
Real Madrid 1-1 Chelsea, Champions League: Tactical Analysis
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First half
Chelsea were dominant in the first half, over-running Madrid in midfield, recovering loose balls and breaking through pressure to create a number of opportunities in the final third.
Chelsea were very aggressive to break through Madrid’s pressure quickly in midfield. The spaces for Chelsea to exploit were found ahead of Madrid’s backline, as their midfield pushed up to try to press Chelsea’s buildup, which would allow for Chelsea to combine, dribble or quickly recover loose balls to break forward.
Madrid were left vulnerable with Benzema playing between Jorginho and Silva, Casemiro pushing up high to close down Jorginho, the wing-backs up to close Chelsea’s wing-backs, Kroos isolated against Kanteé (a complete mismatch for Kroos) and Modrić getting caught between Mount and Rüdiger. Any combination with Kanté involved on the right would see him easily carry the ball past Kroos an
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The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Thursday, February 11
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Hello, all!
Ramble of the Day
I have to get something off my chest: yesterday’s match was one of the most thrilling Tottenham games I’ve watched in a while. Sure, it ended in a loss after Spurs conceded
five goals, but . it was entertaining, right? Not in a way that I’d like the team to replicate frequently, of course. As much as I dislike José Mourinho’s style of play, this is not the ideal change of style. It has been a while since Spurs were in a truly silly game, and it made me do some reflecting.