Aston Villa open new year with win at sluggish Spurs

Tottenham's Premier League top-four hopes suffered a blow after second-half goals from Emiliano Buendia and Douglas Luiz fired Aston Villa to a 2-0 win.

World Cup finalists Hugo Lloris and Cristian Romero were back for Spurs, but the former was at fault for Buendia's opener and Luiz was able to wrap up the points with a fine 73rd-minute finish.

It extended Unai Emery's unbeaten record against Tottenham to four games and inflicted more misery on Antonio Conte's side, who have conceded first in their last 10 matches and now dropped to fifth in the Premier League.

Spurs struggled to create chances throughout and were booed off after a third home defeat from their last five games.

While Tottenham were boosted by the return of Romero and Lloris, Dejan Kulusevski became the latest player unavailable to Conte due to a minor muscle injury.

Romero's compatriot Emiliano Martinez was also at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but only named on the Villa bench a fortnight on from his heroics in Lusail.

Villa boss Emery had never previously lost to slow-starters Spurs and nearly watched Ollie Watkins fire the visitors ahead when he raced through down the left but he dragged his 14-yard shot wide.

It was not a sign of things to come with a lacklustre opening half occurring with as many yellow cards as shots.

Each of Tottenham three centre-backs received bookings from John Brooks in a rash nine-minute period with Ben Davies a touch fortunate after lunging into a tackle with Ashley Young.

Chances had been few and far between before Young was well placed to clear Harry Kane's header off the line in the 40th minute after Ivan Perisic had rounded Robin Olsen in the Villa goal.

Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa as it happened

It woke up Conte's side with Son