2026-01-10
Unai Emery’s Aston Villa picked up Tottenham Hotspur’s wound and defeated them at home in a great performance by Emi Buendía to qualify for the fourth round of the FA Cup (1-2).
The ‘Villains’, who are alive in three competitions and fighting for all three, have gone to the fourth round for the third consecutive year, something that had not been easy for the club before Emery’s arrival, because from 2017 to 2023 they always fell in the third round.
On their visit to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where they already won in October thanks to a great goal from Buendía, Villa got the game back on track with an outstanding first half. At 22 minutes, Buendía finished off Guglielmo Vicario by shooting a great combination on the edge of the area, while in stoppage time of the first half, Emery’s team pulled off another beautiful triangulation inside the area so that this time the Argentine assisted Morgan Rogers with a backheel to make it 0-2. Curiously, the scorers (and the scoreboard) were the same as in the Birmingham team’s victory on October 19.
Tottenham were booed at half-time and changed their face, quickly closing the gap thanks to Wilson Odobert, but Thomas Frank’s team, who is on the wire, did not generate much more danger beyond a goal disallowed by Xavi Simmons for offside.
The bad news for Villa came in the form of an injury, because Boubacar Kamara was injured after an ugly tackle nine minutes into the game. This loss could accelerate the club’s moves for Conor Gallagher, one of Emery’s intended midfielders. At Tottenham, Richarlison was also injured, suffering a hamstring problem. The Brazilian’s injury, however, coincides with the return of Dominic Solanke, who played his first minutes of the season.
While Villa advance to the round for the third year in a row – last year they reached the semi-finals – Tottenham have only won one of their last seven games and Frank’s job is more in danger than ever. Given the team’s drift, it would not be surprising if the board opted for a change of direction.
In the rest of the matches, Bristol City beat Spaniard Javi Gracia’s Watford (5-1), while Birmingham City eliminated Cambridge United (2-3) and Grimsby Town ended the adventure of Weston-super-Mare, a Sixth Division team.
