Vini and Kane ease Jose pressure

Tottenham emerged from the wreckage of their midweek Europa League collapse with a battling victory at Villa Park. Carlos Vinicius’ first-half tap- in and Harry Kane’s 68th-minute penalty were enough to negotiate Spurs past Villa and move the North Londoners within three points of the final Champions League berth.

Recognising the watershed nature of the non-performance in Zagreb, Jose Mourino rang the changes here. Only captain Hugo Lloris, Davinson Sanchez, Lucas Moura and Harry Kane were retained in the line-up. Among those drafted in, Joe Rodon, Japhet Tanganga, and Carlos Vinicius were the most surprising selections. Rodon hadn’t started any of the previous 13 matches, while Vinicius and Tanganga were making only their second and third respective Premier League starts this season.

Understandably Spurs started the match tentatively. The energetic Watkins ruffled a flustered Sanchez while Bernard Traore unsettled Reguilon on the Tottenham left. Fortunately for Spurs, Villa, shorn of Jack Grealish, proved incapable of exploiting the visitors’ unease in the opening 20 minutes. The nearest Dean Smith’s side came to an opener was Traore’s diagonal pass which found the stealthy Targett evading Tottenham’s attempted offside trap at the back post. Unopposed on the corner of the six-yard box, the left-back opted to steer the ball across goal rather than taking on the strike himself. The well placed Tanganga intervened to boot the ball to safety.

Unable to find any fluency through the middle of the pitch, Spurs began increasingly to go long. And, against the run of play, they took the lead just before the half-hour mark. Reguilon’s speculative punt down the line, looking for Vinicius, drew Martinez from his area. The keeper’s weak clearance was seized upon by the lively Lucas Moura. The Brazilian instantly exchanged passes with Kane, bursting into the Villa box to reach the return ball before squaring it to Vinicius to slot into an empty net from six-yards.

The breakthrough fortified Mourinho’s side, and Villa’s threat quickly receded as Hojbjerg and Ndombele took charge of the midfield. Now it was the hosts who looked nervy. Five minutes before the interval, Traore gifted Spurs a corner misplacing a pass under no pressure. Moura swung in the resulting kick, which Kane – clambering over McGinn – met with a header. The striker couldn’t direct his effort on the target, but the panicked Villa rearguard put the ball behind again. Martinez tried to take command this time, punching Moura’s delivery to the edge of his area. There the lurking Ndombele improvised, returning a looping half-volley over the goalkeeper. But the Frenchman’s strike lacked the requisite dip to bring it down below the crossbar.

Tottenham were immediately on the front foot at the start of the second half. Reguilon anticipated Cash’s forward pass, beating Sanson to it and sustaining a whack in the process that would later force him off. The loose ball broke towards Lucas Moura, who shifted it on to Kane at the base of Villa’s box. With Mings backing away, the England captain whipped a low drive for the bottom corner. Brushing the defender’s studs on its was through, the shot whistled a fraction wide of the far post.

Minutes later, Kane tiptoed past three challenges in the centre circle before feeding Lo Celso. The Argentine switched the attack to the luminescent Moura on the left-wing, who turned Matthew Cash one way and then the other with such speed that the right-back tumbled to the turf. Disappointingly Moura declined to apply the finish himself and instead looked for Kane with a pull-back which Mings was on hand to intercept.

Approaching the hour, Villa, at last, forced Lloris to make a save. Morgan Sanson fed Trezeguet on the right. The forward fired goalwards but found Joe Rodon bravely blocking the ball’s route to the net. The rebound eventually fell to McGinn, who tried to feather a shot into the far corner. The strike lacked the power to unduly trouble the Tottenham keeper as he dove to his left to gather it.

Just as in the first half, the home-side defused their own attacking threat with a defensive aberration. With 66 minutes played, Ndombele stepped in to relieve Villa substitute Anwar El Ghazi of possession on the halfway line. The midfielder’s swift ball to Moura was, in turn, steered through to Kane in the Villa box. The wily forward stepped over the ball as it ran towards the byline, inviting a rash tackle from Cash. Mike Dean had no hesitation pointing to the spot, from where Kane settled the contest by stroking home his 27th goal of the campaign.

This win – coming against a moderate Villa side – will not have compelled a rethink among the vast swathe of Spurs fans who believe Mourinho’s race is already run. It did, however, demonstrate that the nucleus of the squad is still fighting for their beleaguered manager. Mourinho has cultivated siege mentalities with success at his former clubs. If he can do the same in Tottenham’s remaining 10 games, he may just be able to save this troubled season and with it his job.