Gallagher and Richarlison drag Tottenham out of the bottom three at Villa Park
Tottenham Hotspur won at Wolves last weekend. Sunday afternoon at Villa Park they made it two in a row, the second of which was the kind of result that actually shifts the table. Conor Gallagher and Richarlison scored inside 25 minutes, and a back line that has spent half the season giving up two-goal leads finally held one. Aston Villa's Emi Buendia made it nervy at the death. Tottenham held on, won 2-1, and climbed out of the relegation zone for the first time in weeks.
For Roberto De Zerbi, the Italian still reading the room a month into the job, this is the result the rescue mission needed. The Wolves win was a corner turned. Villa Park is the road opening up. For Aston Villa, fifth and chasing a top-four place, it is the kind of defeat that turns a tight run-in into something tighter still.
Spurs find a goal, then another
The opener arrived in the 12th minute. A Villa clearance off a Tottenham set piece dropped to Gallagher about 25 yards out, and his low strike found the bottom-left corner past Emiliano Martinez. It was his first Tottenham goal since arriving from Atletico Madrid in January, and a useful one given who his side are right now.
Richarlison made it two in the 25th. Mathys Tel got down the left and floated a cross into the area, and the Brazilian rose between two centre-backs to head past Martinez. For 65 minutes after that Tottenham looked nothing like a team in the bottom three. They pressed the trigger early in possession when they had it, dropped into a hard low block when they did not, and the kind of self-inflicted moments that have characterised their season simply did not arrive.
Villa wake up too late
Unai Emery's side did most of the running in the second half but rarely found a clean route to Guglielmo Vicario's goal. The hosts piled crosses into the box and ran into a defensive shape that, for once, held its lines. The breakthrough finally came deep into stoppage time, when Matty Cash's cross was met by Buendia at the back post for a header that gave Vicario no chance and the away end three minutes of pure dread.
Tottenham survived. Villa applied pressure to the final whistle but could not find the ball in any meaningful pocket of space. Three points to Spurs, a result that pushes them above West Ham. Three games left to keep them there.
Where it leaves the table
Tottenham's stay in the relegation places had begun to draw uncomfortable historical comparisons. They had not been this deep into a season inside the bottom three since 1976-77, the year they were last actually relegated from the top flight. De Zerbi, appointed at the end of March on a five-year contract after Igor Tudor left by mutual consent, has been told repeatedly by his own players that the squad is better than its position. Sunday was the first day in a while where it looked it.
Aston Villa stay fifth, but their route to the Champions League is now harder. Chelsea have a game in hand and the run-in is unforgiving. Villa also have a Europa League semi-final second leg against Nottingham Forest on Thursday, having lost the first leg 1-0 last week to a Chris Wood penalty. Emery's side now navigate the rest of May with a top-four chase, a continental semi-final, and a fixture list that does not let up.
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