Tottenham 0 Aston Villa 2: Spurs booed off as Conte’s side concede first goal for tenth straight game in horror show

HUGO LLORIS must be sick of the sight of Argentines bearing down on his goal.

France’s record appearance-maker was playing his first game since losing the World Cup final to Lionel Messi and Co on penalties.

Emi Buendia celebrates putting Aston Villa ahead

Douglas Luiz doubled the lead 17 minutes from time

Hugo Lloris was at fault for Villa’s opener

Tottenham were booed off at the end of the game

And once again the goalkeeper had that sinking feeling after Emi Buendia, who hails from the same South American nation but did not go to Qatar, capitalised on his mistake here.

Lloris fumbled a routine shot which allowed Ollie Watkins to tee up Buendia five minutes into the second half.

It will have delighted another Emi, that of Villa stopper and gloating world champion Emi Martinez, who was also making his comeback to club duty, albeit as a substitute.

The goal meant Spurs have now conceded first in their last TEN games.

But things got even worse for Antonio Conte’s men when Douglas Luiz poked past Lloris with 17 minutes to go.

It sparked wild celebrations from ex-Arsenal chief Unai Emery, who only took charge of Villa in October.

The Spaniard played a tactical masterclass to nullify Harry Kane and can now look back on three wins in his first four league games.

It was not the kind of triumphant return Cristian Romero had in mind when he came back from the Buenos Aires World Cup party on Tuesday.

He did however quickly get back to what he is best-known for in these parts with bone-crunching challenges on Luiz and Watkins in the first half, the latter of which earned him a yellow card.

Matt Doherty was starting his second successive game at right wing-back, having spent most games before the World Cup as a substitute.

Emerson Royal was preferred during that period but this time it was his return to warm the bench.

Though SunSport understands there was NO bust-up between the Brazilian and Spurs’ coaching staff this week, with a source close to the player denying reports to the contrary.

Doherty scored four goals in three friendlies at the start of last month and came close to a competitive one here in the early stages.

The Irishman skilfully nutmegged Tyrone Mings on the right side of the penalty area, but his shot was well blocked by a committed Boubacar Kamara.

Kane endured twist-the-knife chants of “You let your country down” at Brentford on Boxing Day following his skied penalty in England’s quarter-final defeat to Lloris’ France.

And there was a smattering of the same taunt here from the travelling fans, though the home crowd quickly responded with a raucous rendition of: “He’s one of our own”.

Kane came the nearest to breaking the deadlock of a drab first half with a header cleared off the line.

Clement Lenglet, playing in the middle of Spurs’s defence with Eric Dier dropped, found Ivan Perisic with a clever through ball.

The Croat rounded Robin Olsen but was pushed wide, so clipped in a cross that Kane met, only to be cleared by veteran Ashley Young.

Son Heung-min scored a hat-trick at Villa last season on his way to winning the golden boot but has been dreadfilly out of sorts this term. 

The South Korean had the chance to play Kane through after a neat Spurs move but his pass was way too heavy and the opportunity was gone.

Grumpy home fans let out a few boos as the half-time whistle went.

But actually this was an improvement on the last five league games when their side were losing at the interval.

Still, it did not take long for reality to bite as they did indeed fall behind five minutes into the second half.

Lloris will not want to watch this one back as he spilled Luiz’s chancer from range allowing Watkins to steal the ball.

Villa’s striker had the presence of mind not to shoot when rounding the keeper from a tight angle but instead to cut it back to Buendia who applied the finish.

Nothing was going right for Tottenham as Perisic blasted a half-chance over the bar and Kane hardly got a sniff.

Then, on 73 minutes, the game was up as Villa pounced when Kamara robbed Kane of possession.

The ex-Marseille man gave the ball to Luiz, who played a neat one-two with John McGinn that carved open Spurs defence before flicking cleverly past the helpless Lloris.

Emery went potty on the touchline, knowing that his side had likely added another big scalp to his young tenure following wins over Manchester United and Brighton.

But for Conte, this was arguably his side’s worst display of the season.

The Italian had already warned on Friday to his players that replicating last year’s top-four finish was going to be tougher because of the increased competition.

Yet with form that reads two wins in their last seven league games, simply qualifying for the Europa League could be a tall order this time round.

It was a frustrating afternoon for Antonio Conte

Aston Villa handled Harry Kane superbly

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