Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Aston Villa

Match Report by Jaymes Marsh

Boo's rang all around The Lane, and deservedly so!

We started the game with the 4-1-3-2 formation, stationing Gomes in goal, Dawson (in for the injured King), Woodgate, Bale, and new signing, Corluka.

Zokora was deployed as the midfield anchor-man and was placed just in front of the back four and behind Lennon, Huddlestone, and Modric.

Bent & our new Russian ace, Pavlyuchenko were our strikers.

From the offset, the formation setup by Ramos was the wrong one. Both full-backs were obviously commanded to bomb up and down the wings. This however, proved our biggest mistake as you don't leave large areas exposed when you've got the fantastic Ashley Young running against you.

Villa went in front after a comedy of errors saw Corluka stranded up at the wrong end of the pitch, Huddlestone being done by A. Young, who passed to Agbonglahor (into the space Corluka should have been occupying), who crossed to a completely unmarked Reo-Coker, who slotted past Gomes from 7 yards.

Heads dropped, and Villa went on the rampage. Jenas was brought on to replace the injured Modric, who is clearly mulling over the defeat to England last week.

Gomes most definitely kept us in the game, making a string of saves that would have seen us dead and buried.

Towards the end of the half, we did up our game and saw the Villa keeper make a save from a stinging Huddlestone shot.

Bentley came out earlier than the rest of the team just before the second half kicked off, replacing Zokora.

Ramos changed the system to a 4-4-2 formation, with Bentley on the left and Lennon on the right, leaving Huddlestone & Jenas to occupy the centre of midfield.

We started the second half brightly, but yet again, something was lacking.

Ashley Young ran the game from start to finish. He was allowed to break through our midfield and hit a tame shot that Gomes failed to deal with.

So many people will slam Gomes for the mistake. Please don't. We didn't lose this game because of his mistake. If anything, the guy kept us in it during the first half.

Ramos brought on his 3rd and final sub; Giovani on for a useless Dawson.

Again we upped our game, but the Villa team, ahead 0-2, was strong and resolute, not allowing a half-hearted Spurs side to penetrate it.

Jenas hit a shot from around 30 yards which cannoned off Bent, and hit the net.

The final few minutes saw us attack, but again, this Spurs side didn't attack like we used to. From what I could see, our efforts were tame and loose.

Glimpses of Pavlyuchenko are promising, but Ramos needs to find a formula to suit our attacking play. Our £14 million man will do well.

Villa were well marshalled, and you can sense that Martin O'Neil knows what his best eleven are. Unfortunately, I can't say that Ramos does.