LONDON, Jan 2: Aston Villa continued its resurgence under Unai Emery with a hard-fought 2-0 away victory over Tottenham in the Premier League on Sunday.
Emiliano Buendia took advantage of an error by Hugo Lloris in the Spurs goal to open the scoring and Douglas Luiz doubled the advantage to secure a second consecutive away league victory for Villa.
Spurs struggled to create chances throughout and players were booed off after a third home defeat from their last five games.
While Tottenham was boosted by the return of World Cup finalists Cristian 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. The visitors started the brighter side and Ollie Watkins came close to putting Villa ahead when he raced through down the left but the forward dragged his 14-yard shot wide..
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.
The chance woke up Conte’s side with Son Heung-min, who chucked away his protective mask midway through the half, curling a free-kick into the arms of the Swedish goalkeeper soon after.
Despite making it to the break without conceding, Tottenham’s habit of falling behind continued five minutes into the second period.
Lloris was at fault in his first appearance since the World Cup final and Buendia profited.
Luiz’s shot from range was spilled by Lloris and the alert Watkins reacted quickest to tee up Buendia, who slotted home from close range to help make up for his Qatar disappointment after he failed to make Argentina’s squad.
Perisic sent an effort over the bar moments later before Conte turned to his limited options on the bench and introduced Ryan Sessegnon in place of Bryan Gil after he struggled to make an impact on his first Premier League start.
Matt Doherty, Spurs’ other wing back, prevented Villa from doubling its tally with 64 minutes on the clock when his sliding tackle thwarted Watkins.
Kane fired wide on the half volley soon after before he made a costly error to allow the away side to double its advantage.
Boubacar Kamara won possession from the Spurs forward and John McGinn exchanged passes with Luiz, who poked home to spark chants from the home faithful against Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy.
Conte made a flurry of late substitutions with Pape Sarr being brought on for his debut and Djed Spence earning a rare appearance but they proved futile with boos greeting the full-time whistle.
Forest hold Chelsea
Nottingham Forest gave its Premier League survival hopes a boost with a 1-1 draw against Chelsea, whose troubles on the road continued Sunday.
The hosts put in a good second-half display which was rewarded with Serge Aurier’s equalizer just after the hour mark.
Forest arguably deserved to win as Morgan Gibbs-White hit the crossbar, but this will give Steve Cooper’s team great encouragement in its bid to beat the drop this season.
Chelsea did at least avoid a fourth straight away defeat but will require huge improvement to close the seven-point gap on the top four.
The match was marred by alleged homophobic chanting from some Forest fans toward away supporters. Chelsea’s official LGBTQ+ supporters group took to Twitter toward the end of the first half to “totally condemn” the chant it said could be heard during a match which was shown live on Sky Sports.
Forest said in a statement shortly after fulltime: “The club are aware of reports concerning chants aimed at Chelsea supporters from a minority of fans this evening and do not condone any type of discriminatory or offensive behaviour. The matter will be investigated.” Forest, which beat Liverpool in the league in October and Spurs in the English League Cup in November, troubled Chelsea with its pace from the start.
Kepa Arrizabalaga was forced into two saves as Gibbs-White played Brennan Johnson through on goal but his first shot was well saved by the visiting goalkeeper, with the follow-up effort easier to gather.
Forest was on top when it fell behind in the 16th minute.
Christian Pulisic was allowed too much space to get in a cross, which Willy Boly made a mess of trying to clear and it looped over Dean Henderson and off the crossbar.
Sterling was waiting eagerly to fire home the rebound for his first Premier League goal since August.
Despite the lead, Graham Potter’s side was not dominating, though the visitors did have the better efforts on goal with Cesar Azpilicueta seeing a deflected effort go just wide, while Pulisic shot straight at Henderson.
Forest started the second half well and had a chance just four minutes in. Johnson raced clear down the right and a square ball to Taiwo Awoniyi looked the best option, but he instead opted to shoot and Kepa was equal to it with a low save.
A deserved leveler came in the 63rd from an unlikely source as Aurier scored his first goal since January 2021. Chelsea failed to clear a corner and the former Tottenham defender controlled Boly’s header with his chest and then lashed home.
Forest could not create any more clear-cut opportunities and had to settle for a point which leaves it in the relegation zone on goal difference immediately behind 17th-place West Ham.
On Saturday, Arsenal stretched its league lead to seven points with a 4-2 win at Brighton while closest challengers Manchester City and Newcastle both dropped points. (AP)
Southampton,Bournemouth0-2 Crystal Palace, Wolves
