Tottenham’s first league goals of the season came in the 86th and 98th minutes, and Aston Villa still won
Unai Emery’s side took their first league win of the season at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and a late Spurs reply left Roberto De Zerbi in the relegation zone going into a three-week break.
Sep 19, 2026
Aston Villa were three goals up at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with 11 minutes to play on Saturday. Tottenham then scored the first two Premier League goals of their season and lost anyway, 3-2, in front of 60,920 people who had waited four matches and 86 minutes to see their team score in the league at all.
Villa had not won a league game this season either. They have now, and Unai Emery’s side take their first three points of the campaign out of north London.
Three goals in 34 minutes
Spurs were the better side for most of the first half. Zion Suzuki kept Villa level with a run of saves, and then the game turned in the fourth minute of first-half stoppage time, with Micky van de Ven off the pitch receiving treatment. Boubacar Kamara’s shot was turned in by Johan Manzambi, and Villa led at the break having threatened almost nothing before that.
Nicolas Jackson made it two in the 67th minute, slipping away from Micky van de Ven and finishing past Antonin Kinsky. Twelve minutes later Emiliano Buendía struck one from distance into the top corner. At 3-0 with a quarter of an hour left, the stadium started to empty.
The drought ended too late
Conor Gallagher had been on the pitch for two minutes when he scored. He came on for Sandro Tonali in the 84th, and his shot in the 86th went in off Matty Cash. That was Tottenham’s first Premier League goal of 2026-27.
The second arrived in the eighth minute of added time. Andy Robertson swung in a free-kick, van Hecke headed it past Suzuki, and the £52 million defender Spurs signed from Brighton in June had his first goal for the club. Sam Barrott brought it to an end almost as soon as the game restarted.
Two goals in 12 minutes, after four matches and 86 minutes without one, tells you very little about what happens next. Roberto De Zerbi can point at the first half, when his team made enough chances to be two up by the interval. The table points at the 34 minutes in the middle.
Where it leaves both clubs
Tottenham are 18th on two points from five matches, and both of those points came from goalless draws. Their goal difference is minus six. They are in a relegation place going into an international break that runs 16 days this year, with the September and October windows merged, so their next league game is not until Matchweek 6 on 10 October. That is three weeks of questions about a team that has scored twice all season.
Villa go to 15th on four points. Emery has spent a month answering for a squad that finished fourth last season and won the Europa League, then opened this one with a single point from four games. Jackson and Buendía scoring inside 12 minutes of each other will buy him some quiet through the break.
Dominic Solanke came off for James Maddison in the 66th minute on Saturday, before Villa’s second and third. Whatever De Zerbi settles on up front by October, the two goals that finally came were scored by a substitute midfielder and a centre-back.