Aston Villa Finally Win as Tottenham's Late Fightback Falls Short: Spurs 2-3 Villa

Roberto De Zerbi's expensively rebuilt Tottenham side fell to a fifth game without a win as Aston Villa came from nowhere to claim their first Premier League victory of the season, 3-2 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Spurs rallied late with two goals in the closing minutes, but it was too little, too late against a Villa side that had gone into the match bottom of the table without a league win all season.

Manzambi, Jackson and Buendía put Villa 3-0 up

Johan Manzambi broke the deadlock deep into first-half stoppage time, and Villa took control of the game after the break. Nicolas Jackson doubled the lead in the 67th minute, and Emiliano Buendía made it 3-0 in the 79th, seemingly settling the contest. Tottenham's response came far too late to matter in the context of the result: Conor Gallagher pulled one back in the 86th minute, and Jan Paul van Hecke added a second deep into stoppage time, but Villa held on for a first win that had been a long time coming.

• 45+' — Johan Manzambi (Aston Villa)
• 67' — Nicolas Jackson (Aston Villa)
• 79' — Emiliano Buendía (Aston Villa)
• 86' — Conor Gallagher (Tottenham Hotspur)
• 90+' — Jan Paul van Hecke (Tottenham Hotspur)

Spurs' worst-ever start to a league season

Tottenham came into the match 17th with two points from four games, without a win, and this defeat pushed their goal difference to -6 — statistically their worst start to a Premier League campaign, worse even than the trouble that greeted the 2008-09 season. De Zerbi's side have now gone five matches without a win to open his tenure, and had not scored a single goal in their opening four league games before Saturday's late double.

The full run reads L-L-D-D-L: a 0-3 opening-day defeat away at Brentford, a 0-2 home loss to Newcastle United, back-to-back goalless draws on the road at Nottingham Forest and at home to Everton, and now this 2-3 defeat to Villa. Across those five matches Spurs have scored twice and conceded eight, with Gallagher's and van Hecke's stoppage-time strikes the only goals De Zerbi's side have managed all season — before Saturday they had gone four consecutive league games without finding the net at all.

Villa's first win arrives none too soon

For Aston Villa, this was the breakthrough result their start to the season badly needed. They had taken one point from their first four Premier League matches — a 0-4 defeat away at Brighton, a 0-1 home loss to Arsenal, a goalless draw away at Hull City and a 1-2 home defeat to Nottingham Forest — either side of a Champions League win at Club Brugge, 3-2, and a Super Cup defeat to PSG before the league season began. Unai Emery's side arrived at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium bottom of the table on a single point and left having climbed off the floor with their first three points of the campaign.

Where the table stands after five rounds

The result leaves Tottenham bottom of the Premier League, 20th on two points from five games with a division-worst goal difference of -6 — level on points with 19th-placed Fulham but behind them on goal difference, and inside the relegation zone rather than just facing an early wobble. Aston Villa's first win, added to the point picked up at Hull City, moves them up to 16th with four points from five games and a goal difference of -5: still above the drop zone, but with the same points tally as 15th-placed Crystal Palace and only goal difference keeping them apart.