Tottenham and Aston Villa meet at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after faltering starts in Premier League
Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa meet at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday in a Premier League fixture after both clubs endured a difficult start to the season and are seeking a first sustained lift in form.
More than half a billion was spent between the two clubs in the summer, for just three points and one goal, and both arrive as the past two Europa League winners sitting in the bottom four of the early Premier League table. Villa have lost three of their opening four Premier League games and have notched just one point from those matches, while both teams made large summer changes with 10 new signings each. Unai Emery's Villa also saw six significant departures, including Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins, and Villa's recruitment followed spending of more than £250m; Tottenham added 10 players for more than £300m.
Emery is shaping a new Villa side and accepted he did not know exactly why his team lost control in last Saturday's 2-1 defeat by Nottingham Forest, saying he was unable to make a significant impact from the touchline with many new players still adapting. He has relied on senior figures John McGinn and Tyrone Mings to help the squad through a difficult patch, and both started in Wednesday's Carabao Cup win at Coventry rather than being rested. Captain McGinn has previously described learning Emery's methods as doing "a lot of homework".
New recruits are beginning to feature: Manzambi, brought in from Freiburg, and £47m winger Ibrahim Mbaye, who moved from Paris St-Germain, made their debuts off the bench against Forest and are expected to be part of Villa's new attacking setup. Nicolas Jackson, signed from Chelsea in August, will start on Saturday after coming off the bench at the CBS Arena. Aaron Wan-Bissaka has struggled in his opening three games as he adapts to his role.
Statistically both sides have underperformed in attack: only Villa, with an expected goals (xG) total of 3.39, have a worse xG than Spurs' 3.45 this season, while bottom club Coventry sit on an xG of 4.21 despite being pointless and goalless. Villa have registered the fewest shots in the Premier League with 33 compared with Tottenham's 51, and Villa's six shots on target are the league low compared with Spurs' 12. Only Hull have had fewer touches in the box (47) than Villa's 62.
Tottenham's wait for a league goal continues: it has been 407 minutes since Spurs last scored in the Premier League and they have failed to score in four successive league matches, the first time that has happened since September 2006. Their 0-0 draw with Everton was their first goalless Premier League match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after 140 games. None of the past 22 Premier League meetings between Spurs (15 wins) and Aston Villa (seven) have ended in a draw.
An extended three-week break follows Saturday's match, during which many players will be on international duty, reducing the amount of training time Emery will have with his squad. "This break is crazy because it's three weeks," Emery said. "I don't like to be three weeks but we must accept it. "We are not going to have the players we want. [Johan] Manzambi played the first two matches with us and Saturday the third and then he goes with the national team. "Back with us, we must again try to join him with us in our structure and his mind will maybe be confused. "We don't want to use the international break as an excuse. "Saturday is very important as we lack points but we continue in our process trying to work as well as possible."
