Villa expose familiar flaws as Tottenham slump continues

LONDON, Sept 19 : Tottenham Hotspur's £300 million squad rebuild is showing little sign of reviving the club's fortunes after a 3-2 home defeat by Aston Villa left them winless after five Premier League games on Saturday.

While Villa celebrated their first league win of the season, Tottenham were left staring at another familiar afternoon of frustration as the dark clouds that hung over the club last season returned despite a summer of lavish spending.

Roberto De Zerbi's team did finally get on the scoresheet, with late goals from Conor Gallagher and Jan Paul van Hecke, but they came only after a clinical Villa had taken a 3-0 lead.

Long-suffering Tottenham fans probably sensed trouble when Villa goalkeeper Zion Suzuki produced a string of saves early on, and the mood darkened further when Johan Manzambi struck in first-half stoppage time after an error by Andy Robertson.

Tottenham were temporarily down to 10 men after Micky van de Ven suffered a facial injury and De Zerbi could not hide his frustration at the manner of the goal.

"My focus is why we concede the first goal with 10 players, just for one minute in that situation," the Italian said. "We can stay stronger, we can communicate more and more and more, we can defend in a compact way."

Mohammed Kudus thought he had levelled after coming off the bench, but joy turned to despair as the effort was ruled out for offside in the build-up after a VAR check.

Any hopes of a comeback were then extinguished when Nicolas Jackson exposed Tottenham's defensive frailties to double Villa's lead before Emi Buendia's superb dipping strike made it 3-0 and sent home supporters streaming for the exits.

Tottenham have now won only three of their last 25 Premier League home games, losing 15 of