Roberto Soldado proves to be more than just a clinical finisher as Tottenham Hotspur ease past Aston Villa

Aston Villa 0-2 Tottenham

Goals from Andros Townsend and Roberto Soldado were enough to secure all three points for Andre Villas-Boas’s side against a poor Aston Villa side missing the services of giant Belgian striker Christian Benteke.

Townsend opened the scoring with a whipped cross into the box that evaded everyone, nestling in the far bottom corner of the net and Soldado followed up in the second half with a cool finish from Paulinho’s sublime pass.

Villa threw on Benteke in an attempt to rescue something from the game and while his arrival coincided with an upturn in their performance, it was not enough against a Spurs side that never really hit top gear.

Key Stats:

The table above paints a picture of Tottenham’s dominance with a superior pass completion of 78% from 595 passes and a hefty 56% of the possession. They also outfought the Villa midfield with 72% of tackles won compared to 65% for the hosts.

Villa had plenty of chances but were left cursing their poor shooting as they recorded 11 shots off target with just two on target all game. Not a good day for the Villans without their star striker in the starting line-up and a routine win for the visitors.

Man of the Match:

Andros Townsend may have had the better performance but with one goal and one assist, Roberto Soldado takes the Squawka Man of the Match award. A superb finish for the goal was his first in open play this season and Spurs fans will be hoping that this signals the beginning of some good form in front of goal.

What may have gone unnoticed as well was his tireless work as the lone striker, constantly moving off the ball and creating space for his team-mates to move into. One of these movements out wide led to his assist for Townsend’s goal.

Performance Score:

From the very beginning, it was obvious that Spurs’ quality helped them win the midfield battle and control the game, this is reflected in the Performance Scores as the visitors took the lead early on and never looked back.

Townsend’s goal widened the chasm between the two sides and while Benteke’s arrival saw a small rise in Villa’s score, Soldado quashed all hopes of a comeback late on.

It was the difference in quality between the two teams in the end that dictated the result.

Key Observations:

Roberto Soldado Passes v Villa

Put simply, it was a tale of two strikers. Soldado won the game for Tottenham and Benteke’s absence from the starting line-up meant that Aston Villa found it difficult to compete with their opponents with backup striker Libor Kozak a peripheral figure throughout. Soldado created three chances, and popped up in a number of areas to receive the ball.

Libor Kozák Passes v Spurs

But Spurs fans also have their midfield to thank for controlling the flow and cutting off the service to Villa’s wide-men, Gabriel Agbonlahor and Andreas Weimann. This made it tough for the hosts to play their usual counter-attacking game using the pace of their attackers, Agbonlahor in particular.

Paulinho Heat Map vs Villa

Interestingly, Paulinho emerged from the game with his reputation bolstered with a superb pass for Soldado’s goal but he had a very indifferent first half.

What enabled the Brazilian to demonstrate his talents was the arrival of Moussa Dembele as a substitution, slotting alongside Sandro and allowing Paulinho to get forward and contribute to the attack.

Villas-Boas will have noted this and we could see a midfield trio suits Paulinho more rather than a double pivot in future.

Football graphics and stats from Squawka.