Aston Villa 2 Tottenham 1: Emery leaves Postecoglou on brink of the sack with Spurs’ second cup exit in four days
THE misery just continues for Ange Postecoglou.
Although the moment his team conceded after 58 seconds with his keeper producing a howler, the beleaguered Aussie must have known it was going to be another rotten day.
His spell as Tottenham manager is now turning into a proper nightmare.
Three days after Spurs were annihilated by Liverpool in their Carabao Cup semi-final, Postecoglou’s team were beaten fair and square by Villa and the situation is becoming toxic to a point where a change is inevitable.
Jacob Ramsey’s first minute goal was followed by the second by the outstanding Morgan Rodgers’ in the 64th minute.
Tottenham’s new striker Mathys Tel, who did not have a kick all game, set up a nervous couple of minutes with a lovely finish in injury time but anything other than a home win would have been a robbery.
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As the home fans celebrated the second goal, Marcus Rashford arrived as a substitute for his debut along with fellow new boy Marco Asensio.
Rashford’s first action was to accidentally elbow Kevin Danso in the head with the Spurs defender needing treatment.
Yet for the on-loan Manchester United forward, he is only just getting his feet under the table at his new club although how much longer Postecoglou remains at Spurs is the big question.
Aston Villa’s fans sang ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning.
Meanwhile, Tottenham’s increasingly angry supporters sang for chairman Daniel Levy to leave their club. In fact, they chanted it nine times during the game.
Although they were a bit better in the second half, this was still poor from Spurs. Postecoglou should survive for next Sunday’s home match against Manchester United and then an away trip to Ipswich.
Again, you had to have sympathy for Spurs as they were without an entire team. In total, 11 players were out plus the cup-tied Dane Scarlett.
They have been forced to put out the type of team Liverpool decided to do at Plymouth - but every week.
The only blow for Villa was the first half loss of Ezri Konsa, their only available centre-back, went off with an injury and he was replaced by Lamare Bogarde, the nephew of Winston Bogarde who famously flopped at Chelsea.
Yet Villa’s defence were hardly given a tough test. And Tottenham’s manager will have hoped his team would, at the very least, remain solid at the back while finding their feet in the game.
Instead, they were put on their backsides in under a minute.Rogers had too much space when receiving a pass from Youri Tielemans.
He navigated his way past Lucas Bergvall - a bit too easily for the Tottenham manager’s liking you would image - and threaded a pass through to Ramsey with Spurs right-back Pedro Porro having gone walkabout.
Ramsey took the ball into the area with his first touch and while his shot was not particularly good, it still squeezed through keeper Kinsky. What an utter disaster for Spurs.
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy would have expected that the club’s fans, at some stage during the evening, would be chanting for him to leave the club.
But even he would have thought this would occur a bit later than only the second minute.
Spurs struggled to get the ball out of their half and they kept handing Villa chances on a plate.
New Villa arrival Donyell Malen blazed his shot into the North Stand while visiting keeper Kinsky, in fairness, did push away a decent shot from Leon Bailey
As Tottenham’s fans sang: “‘we’re f****g s**”, Tielemans had a free run on goal before his strike bobbled wide while Ramsey also dragged a shot beyond the far post.
In their only meaningful attack of the first half, Spurs should have scored but Son Heung-Min struck his effort at Emiliano Martinez after an outstanding first-time pass from Mikey Moore.
In fact, the finishing from both teams was pretty rubbish. Bailey shot straight at Kinsky, Ramsey hit the post with the follow-up while Malen hammered an effort into the side netting in first half stoppage time.
Spurs did improve after half-time although they could not be any worse.
Son was denied by a decent block from Bogarde, which is something we did not see from his uncle all those years ago, although he only played 12 times in four years in England before leaving in 2004.
Ramsey should have made it 2-0 but Kinsky struck out his right arm to save.
Yet with Rashford and Asensio waiting to enter the field of play, Villa got the second when Porro scuffed a clearance from Malen’s cross and Rodgers had an easy finish.
Spurs defender Danso had a terrific chance to pull a goal back but he somehow missed the target from close range.
Rashford had a chance at the end but Archie Gray took the ball off his foot.
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And then Mathys Tel delivered a cracking finish in stoppage time to put away Kulusevski’s cross.
Yet for Spurs, it was far too little, too late.