Garde, the former Arsenal defender, had only been confirmed as Villa’s new manager on Monday afternoon with the official Villa Twitter feed making an unfortunate faux pas and mispelling his name as it welcomed “Remy” to the club.
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“It means nothing for me”, Pochettino said.
The manager went on to say, “It was a very good game but in football, it’s never easy, never done”.
Dembele netted a hard angled goal in the 3rd minute to get Tottenham off to a quick start.
They nearly snatched an unlikely point as Gestede headed wide and Ayew lashed just over before Tottenham striker Kane was left unmarked to fire into the top corner in stoppage-time.
It proved to be an unnecessarily nervy climax, but Harry Kane restored the two-goal cushion at the death and ensured the evening had the predicted ending after all.
The Argentine hasn’t seen his side lose a league game since the opening day of the season in early August and they are now up to 5th in the table, just a point behind fourth place Manchester United.
Their next fixture comes on Thursday in the Europa League against Anderlecht but they may already have one eye on the weekend when they face the Gunners.
We saw big potential in Dele Alli but youngsters have to develop their game and mentality.
Rudy Gestede: The big man replaced Agbonlahor at half-time, but you wouldn’t have noticed. Deserved a clean sheet. “It’s a game that everyone looks forward to”. And that’s good, because I’ve got no idea what to expect. The left-back lofted the ball down the line to Dembele for the first and delivered the cross which ended up at Alli’s feet for the second.
Head coach Mauricio Pochettino dislikes praising individual players, preferring instead to promote the virtues of the team.
It seemed to be one setback after another for Villa and it did get worse for them, just as the three minutes of added time were announced, with Harry Kane challenging Joleon Lescott to reach Rose’s cross. He was a cultured player himself and these players need to take a bit more care on the ball.
Ciaran Clark, holding him off to bear down on goal. More of the same please. The team’s 29-year-old Captain Gabriel Agbonlahor has declared himself fully healthy for the Spurs match, after starting only three times in Aston Villa’s 10 matches so far this campaign.
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Leandro Bacuna: Shifted around from right wing to central midfield after Westwood went off injured, you can hardly blame Bacuna for failing to put his stamp on the game, but he did well enough to merit higher than the likes of Westwood and Sanchez.
