Tottenham 1-2 Aston Villa: Emi Buendia is bubbling again as Spurs' issues at home deepen - with Thomas Frank's side devoid of creativity

Emi Buendia's exquisite goal was worthy of winning any Premier League contest. Not simply the finish, curled inside the post from the fringes of the penalty area with his left foot but all that went before.

Matty Cash fizzed a diagonal pass to the right wing on the volley where Lucas Digne, who had just taken a corner from that side of the pitch, pulled it out of the air with a sublime touch and rolled it to Buendia who did the rest.

It marked Aston Villa's fifth win in a row, lifting them into midtable and leaving Unai Emery to enthuse about the way his players competed, but Tottenham were left to rue the missed opportunity, losing touch with neighbours Arsenal at the top and continuing a miserable run of form at home.

Not a fortress…

Spurs have taken only four points from four Premier League home games under Thomas Frank extending a terrible record in 2025. They have won only three of the last 13 at home in the league, losing eight. Wins have come against Burnley, Southampton and Manchester United. Chelsea are next to visit.

Ahead of the game, Frank had called on fans to help build the atmosphere while accepting the team were responsible for it as well. They started well and the crowd responded but by the end the mood was hushed and the final whistle was greeted with a now-familiar collective groan.

'It was OK, both ways,' said the Spurs boss. 'The fans were good, they helped where they could, and we looked exciting in moments. There were also moments where we could've done better. I would've loved a 3-0 win with the place rocking, but we looked quite good, performed well and lost to two quality moments.'

Spurs made a terrific start, bristling with energy and intent and scoring in the fifth minute through Rodrigo Bentancur who applied a sweet volley to a cross by Mohammed Kudus headed back across goal by Joao Palhinha. Bentancur had been excused Uruguay's international friendlies because Marcelo Bielsa selected only 17 players and omitted his big names for friendlies against the Dominican Republic and Uzbekistan.

Back Rogers

Morgan Rogers was on Tottenham's summer wish list. Johan Lange, formerly at Aston Villa and now one of two sporting directors at Spurs, has always had an eye on him but came to accept they were simply unable to generate the sort of bid to pique Villa's interest, not even with Unai Emery's team on a Profit and Sustainability tightrope.

The England international has made a disappointing start to the season in club colours. But he registered assists in his previous games against Fulham and Burnley and issued a reminder of what he can do with a brilliant goal. It was his first of the season and his first for Villa since April, to level the contest before half-time.

Seizing on a fortunate ricochet Rogers unleashed a fierce dipping strike, and it soared past Guglielmo Vicario. It was the first effort on target by the visitors. And it pulled them level, having conceded in the fifth minute.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that Villa are gathering momentum once more as Rogers finds his rhythm.

Romero blow

Tottenham laid on a private jet to whisk Cristian Romero back from international duty in the United States, broadly interpreted as a response to the grumblings that emerged from the Argentine's camp last year when he was expected to make the long haul from South America on a scheduled flight.

But the luxury travel, on the same plane as Villa keeper Emi Martinez, could not prevent him from sustaining an injury in the pre-match warm-up. Romero was replaced at the back by Kevin Danso, who stepped in at short notice and performed well alongside Micky van de Ven, who took the captaincy.

'Minor issue, nothing big,' said Frank on Romero but he could not guarantee he would be fit for the Champions League tie at Monaco on Wednesday.

Spurs were also missing Destiny Udogie, who returned from Italy duty with a knee problem, but their defensive unit was solid enough. They limited Villa to only two shots on target in the whole game. Unfortunately for them, they both went in.

Buendia bubbling again

Aston Villa spent £33million of their Jack Grealish bounty on Buendia. They saw him as the creative spark to minimise the loss of their best player, but it has been a difficult four years for the Argentine.

Injuries have devasted his Villa career and, having spent last season at Bayer Leverkusen on loan without making much of an impact, Emery was looking to sell him before the start of the season to raise funds to reinvest.

Leeds and Stuttgart were interested, but only in a loan deal, which had little appeal for Villa. In the end, Emery opted to keep him in the squad. And, suddenly, it looks like a wise move. This delicious winning goal made it three in his last four appearances. 'It feels amazing,' said Buendia, 28.

A creative void

They made a strong start. And Frank was happy with the overall performance, putting defeat down to two moments of quality, but he conceded he would like to see more creativity from open play.

Xavi Simons, who got the nod to play in his favoured position as a number 10, was easily nullified by Villa's excellent midfield screener Boubacar Kamara. And Mathys Tel toiled up front again having been preferred to Richarlison, who had been to the Far East for Brazil's friendlies against South Korea and Japan.

Kudus turned in another strong performance on the right, but Frank clearly has little faith in Brennan Johnson, despite his 18 goals last season. With the likes of James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke all out injured, and Heung-min Son sold, that is a lot of goals to replace. The final chance fell to Johnson and he fired it over.