Winless Villa and Spurs face telling early showdown — SkimNews
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- Tottenham and Aston Villa have spent over £500m combined yet occupy the Premier League bottom four with just one win and one goal between them ahead of Saturday's meeting at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
- Villa added 10 players for £250m+ after losing six key figures including Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins; Spurs added 10 for £300m+ amid fan unrest stemming from two years of relegation battles.
- Tottenham have failed to score in four straight Premier League matches — their first such drought since September 2006 — including a goalless home draw with Everton that ended a run of 140 Premier League games without a stalemate at the stadium.
- Villa hold the league's worst attacking metrics — an xG of 3.39, 33 shots, six on target, and 62 touches in the opposition box — figures that are worse than bottom club Coventry's on every measure despite Coventry being pointless and goalless.
- Unai Emery is relying on John McGinn and Tyrone Mings to integrate new signings — both started Wednesday's Carabao Cup win at Coventry rather than being rested — with Nicolas Jackson set to start Saturday alongside debutants Johan Manzambi and £47m winger Ibrahim Mbaye from Paris St-Germain.
- None of the past 22 Premier League meetings between the two sides have ended in a draw, with Tottenham winning 15 and Villa seven — a record Emery will not want to extend given his side's attacking struggles for goals.
Why it matters: With the international break stripping Emery of three weeks of training time he says he needs to bed in new signings — and Manzambi set to leave for national-team duty immediately after Saturday — this is the last chance either side has to work on combinations before key players scatter, and the loser of a bottom-four clash faces an even longer slide toward the relegation zone.
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