"Finished, trophyless club" - Twitter explodes as Tottenham Hotspur suffer damaging 2-0 defeat against Aston Villa

Tottenham Hotspur were stumped by Unai Emery's Aston Villa 2-0 in their New Year's Day Premier League clash at home.

The match started with Villa holding down their defensive line well, which only bore signs of things to come. The visitors were flexible in attack and rigid in defense, which made it rather difficult for Spurs to find their footing and secure a win.

The first big chance came from Emery's men, who broke quickly on an impressive counter-attack, while Tottenham's defense lost a moment's concentration. However, Ollie Watkins, who had the opportunity to open the scoring, could only put it wide of the goal.

Antonio Conte's men then had their big chance, with Harry Kane taking the initiative. The forward's header at goal, however, was cleared off the line by experienced defender Ashley Young.

Eventually, the half-time whistle came with the deadlock unbroken. Spurs were the better attacking team, but they could not break through Villa's rock-solid defense. Their only shot on target, notably, came from Son Heung-min, whose free-kick only went straight to Robin Olsen.

The second half, however, saw Tottenham slump and unable to get up as they sank uncharacteristically to a 2-0 defeat against mid-table Aston Villa.

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Tottenham Hotspur are knocked out of top-four after damaging defeat to Aston Villa

Spurs managed to keep hold of a top-four spot since the start of the season, having racked up nine wins and three draws in 17 appearances. However, a dominant Manchester United performance over Wolverhampton Wanderers put the Red Devils in fourth place with a game in hand over Spurs.

Tottenham were expected to secure a win against Villa, as three points would have returned them to the fourth spot in the table. However, the Villans were ruthless in the second half of the clash.

Just four minutes in, Emiliano Buendia opened the scoring after a goalkeeping disaster from Hugo Lloris. The Frenchman guided his country to the FIFA World Cup final with impressive displays in between the sticks. However, he did not provide a similar performance for his club.

A shot from Douglas Luiz was poorly saved by Lloris, and the ball was snatched up by Watkins, who laid it into Buendia to complete their move with a goal.

Their second goal came in the 73rd minute, this time thanks to Douglas Luiz, whose darting movements couldn't be stopped by Spurs defenders. A quick one-two with John McGinn saw the Brazilian midfielder get into the area and his effort beat Lloris to put Aston Villa ahead.

Tottenham Hotspur tried to work on a comeback, but it was already too late, and Emery's game management was already working to good effect. The game eventually ended with Spurs unable to find the net in front of their home fans on New Year's Day. This put fans on Twitter in an uproar with tweets like these:

Tottenham will next face Crystal Palace away on January 4.