Sports Blog 02/11/2015: Match Preview – Tottenham vs Aston Villa, Monday 2nd November 2015

A rudderless Aston Villa travel to White Hart Lane this evening aiming to end a run of form that has left them floundering at the bottom of the Premier League.

The dismissal of Tim Sherwood made him the third manager on the chopping block this season (well, technically second due to Dick Advocaat’s ‘resignation’). Villa’s 2-1 home defeat to Swansea last weekend, making 6 league losses in a row and 8 in 10 games, was the final straw for the club’s board, bringing to an end Sherwood’s mere 7 months in charge. Interim manager Kevin MacDonald stretched that run to 7 defeats in all competitions mid-week as Villa crashed out of the League Cup to a gradually-improving Southampton, leaving the Midlands club desperate for a renewed sense of direction.

And if rumours are correct, they may have just found it. Ex-Lyon manager and former Arsenal defender Remi Garde is reportedly set to be named the new Villa boss at some point this week, leaving MacDonald in charge for one final game on Monday evening. Garde hasn’t managed a club since he left Lyon for ‘personal reasons’ back in 2014, but comes with strong references from Arsene Wenger and Gerard Houllier.



Whoever does take over at Villa Park, be it Garde or some other poor fellow, will have to deal with the most inert front line (alongside Stoke) in the entire league. With only 9 goals to their name Villa have been in abject form going forwards, failing to adequately fill the gap left by the Liverpool-bound Christian Benteke. At Super Mega Player Goal Minute spreads of 12-16 and 8-11 respectively Rudy Gestede and Jordan Ayew, the strikers ostensibly brought in to replace the departed Belgian, have hardly set the league alight, with 4 goals for the former (one of which was in the League Cup) and a solitary goal for the latter.

There have been similar striker-related issues at White Hart Lane this season; issues, however, that finally seem to be working themselves out. It might have taken him nearly 7 games, but a goal in Spurs’ 4-1 rout of Manchester City, and the central hat-trick in a rampant victory over a struggling Bournemouth has seen the under-pressure Harry Kane regain something close to form. That leaves England’s latest bright hope as favourite to score first at 15/4, with a healthy Super Mega PGM of 54-62 thrown in for good measure.

Tottenham themselves haven’t lost a league game since their opener against Manchester United; however drawing 5 of their 9 matches since then isn’t exactly the form Mauricio Pochettino will have hoped for, with Spurs arguably lacking the edge an in-form Kane could give them. Yet with 11 goals in their past 4 league games Tottenham have got something of good thing going at the moment (well, barring a mixed run in the Europa League that sees them with a win, a draw and a loss in that order), and could be in for another large haul against a flaccid Aston Villa.

Given the knotted mess of limp performances and aimless attacking that is passing as Aston Villa at the moment, our Spreadex traders and clients alike have found it hard to look beyond a Spurs victory, offering a Tottenham/Aston Villa Goal Supremacy spread of 1.35-1.55 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.75-2.95.