When they face Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday, Aston Villa will be hoping to gain ground toward a Champions League berth.
Losses to Chelsea and Wolves before the international break hampered Tottenham’s impressive start to the season, while injuries to key players have further weakened an already vulnerable side.
Villa has been on a tear as of late in their pursuit of a playoff spot in Europe’s top division. They’ll be taking on the fourth-place Spurs on Sunday, and they’re only one point and one spot behind right now.
Updates from the Squad
Spurs get Cristian Romero and Yves Bissouma back from suspension and injuries, but they lose Destiny Udogie.
Pape Matar Sarr will be evaluated after suffering an injury while playing for Senegal.
Midfielder Jacob Ramsey of Aston Villa has returned from a broken metatarsal, and left defender Alex Moreno has also healed and is awaiting his season debut.
Emi Martinez, Matty Cash, John McGinn, Leon Bailey and Nicolo Zaniolo are all expected to overcome minor injuries.
There will be no more Bertrand Traore, and Lucas Digne, Douglas Luiz, and Boubacar Kamara will be suspended after their next booking.
Since August 1995, when Tottenham hosted Villa, the club has not lost consecutive home games.
Spurs had a different manager for each of their four previous league meetings versus Villa at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium: Mauricio Pochettino, Ryan Mason, Nuno and Antonio Conte. This will be Ange Postecoglou’s fifth game as a manager.The Spurs of Tottenham
Despite scoring first in both games against Chelsea and Wolves, Spurs have now lost both of them.
Losses to Chelsea and Wolves at the start of last year was the last time the Lilywhites dropped three straight league games.
This team has given up the most goals in the league in the second half of the season’s stoppage time, with six.
All five of Son Heung-min’s goals against Aston Villa in six Premier League games have come at Villa Park
Villa’s 21 Premier League victories in 2018 are tied with their 1998 franchise record. In 1980 was the last time they won 22 games in a row in the Premier League.
After eight league games following the September international break, they have the most points in the league with 19.
However, Unai Emery’s side have only secured two wins in their past 10 away league games (D3, L5).
Aston Villa have the second best goalscoring record in the division ahead to this weekend’s fixtures but only six of their 29 goals have come away.
They have won three and drawn two of their last five Premier League games played in London since losing 3-0 to Fulham 13 months ago in Steven Gerrard’s penultimate game in charge.
Despite losing 2-0 to Spurs at home in the League Cup quarterfinals this season, Emery is undefeated in five league encounters against them.
