Spurs v Aston Villa - the stats
Ahead of tonight’s visit of Aston Villa, we take a look at the key numbers and statistics behind the game (6pm kick-off).
Spurs v Villa
This evening, we will face Aston Villa in the league for the 150th time in our history – we have won 65 and drawn 34 of those encounters, scoring 249 goals – and we head into this milestone game on a near-perfect run of form against the Villans. In our last 13 meetings with the West Midlands outfit, we have lost just once, while in each of our last six encounters, we have won.
In the Premier League, only versus Everton (21) have we kept more clean sheets than we have against Villa (17). Our latest shutout against them came back in March as strikes from Carlos Vinicius and Harry Kane saw us to a 2-0 win over the men in claret and blue. If we are to taste victory over the Villans again tonight, it will be the seventh time we have completed a Premier League double over them – only against Manchester City (8), have we completed more doubles in the competition.
Villa boss Dean Smith, meanwhile, has lost each of his three Premier League matches against us – he’s only lost his first four league encounters against two sides in his managerial career (Manchester City and Blackburn).
Final home outing
As we welcome supporters back to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this evening, it will also mark our last home game of the 2020/21 season. In recent years, we have fared well in our final home appearance of the campaign as we have won 10 of our last 12 such games (D1 L1) - in our final home fixture of 2019/20, we earned a 3-0 win over Leicester. That victory was our 12th of the campaign in N17 as we enjoyed the third-best home form in the Premier League. This term though, only Manchester City (38) have picked up more points at home than us (33) to date.
This evening's game will be Aston Villa's final away match of the season - a fixture they have struggled in over their recent history. In their last 18 campaigns, Villa have won just one of their final away games in that run (D7 L10). It is worth noting though that their sole triumph during that period did come in north London, as they defeated Arsenal 2-1 at the Emirates back in the 2010/11 season.
Midweek matches
In recent seasons, we have largely enjoyed our home midweek outings. Out of our last 19 matches on our own turf that have occurred on either a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, we taken all three points on 15 occasions. We have also found the back of the net in 18 of those games, including in our last such match - a 2-1 Wednesday win over Southampton at the end of April in what was Ryan Mason's first game in charge as Interim Head Coach.
On the other hand, Aston Villa have failed to win any of their midweek games this year, drawing two and losing five of their seven such games – those five defeats have all come on a Wednesday. Their most recent victory in a midweek Premier League game came 16 months ago as they won away at Burnley in January, 2020.
Form guide
We come into this game in encouraging form as we have lost just three of our last 12 outings in the league. We have also won six of our last seven games at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, scoring 19 times in that run and keeping four clean sheets. Aston Villa, meanwhile, have won just one of their last seven matches (D2 L4) with each defeat in that run coming after they had taken the lead.
Villa will also arrive in north London sitting 11th in the table and, this season, we hold a strong record against sides currently in the bottom half of the division, having lost just one of our 19 such games (W13 D5) – only Manchester City have lost fewer games versus bottom-half sides.
On target
Heung-Min Son, Gareth Bale and Harry Kane have all got form when it comes to facing Aston Villa. Starting with Sonny, the South Korean international has scored three goals in his two career appearances against Villa to date. Gareth, meanwhile, netted a hat-trick on his last Premier League appearance against the Villans, although that was in December, 2012, back in his first spell with us. Finally, Harry has scored seven goals in his last six Premier League appearances against the West Midlands outfit and has found the back of the net in each of his last four matches against them.
The most recent of our number 10’s goals against Villa came from the penalty spot in March’s 2-0 win at Villa Park. That was the sixth penalty we have scored against the Villans in the Premier League – only against Arsenal have we netted more times from the spot in the competition (10).
