Morgan Rogers’ first goal for Aston Villa in 20 matches inspired a fifth-consecutive win and piled more home woe on Tottenham as they suffered a 2-1 Premier League defeat.
Rogers had shone for England during the international break, but failed to score in club football since the start of April, but changed that at Spurs with a sensational 37th-minute leveller.
It cancelled out Rodrigo Bentancur’s fifth-minute opener for Thomas Frank’s side and as Tottenham pushed for a rare home victory in the league in 2025, they were hit with a sucker-punch as Emiliano Buendia’s curler, 13 minutes from time sealed the comeback for Villa.
Frank had failed to beat Unai Emery in five previous attempts and his efforts this time were not helped by captain Cristian Romero being forced to pull out in the warm-up.
It meant Kevin Danso was a last-minute inclusion for Spurs, but the hosts put that to one side to break the deadlock after five minutes.
Villa dealt with the initial corner into the area and yet Mohammed Kudus’ superb follow-up delivery was headed back across goal by Joao Palhinha for Bentancur to drill in from eight yards, for his first goal in 10 months.
It was momentarily 2-0 two minutes later when Kudus drilled through Emi Martinez after a wonderful crossfield ball by stand-in captain Micky van de Ven, but it was correctly ruled out for offside.
Villa did respond with pantomime villain Matty Cash – who was booed after two notably-poor tackles in past meetings with Tottenham – firing wide from range in the 15th minute.
Martinez spilled an effort by Wilson Odobert soon after, but no Spurs player reacted quick enough before opposite number Guglielmo Vicario punched out a dangerous Lucas Digne cross.
Tottenham looked set to retain their lead at half-time until Rogers produced a sensational equaliser.
With 37 minutes on the clock, England attacker Rogers skipped past Xavi Simons and rifled a dripping effort beyond Vicario for his first goal of the campaign.
Flying tackles resulted in brief stoppages for Amadou Onana and Pedro Porro before Tottenham forward Mathys Tel squandered an opening at the back post from a Kudus cross to ensure it stayed 1-1 at the break.
After Villa full-back Digne required treatment after being caught by Danso with his follow-through, the second half sparked into life.
A long throw by Danso sparked chaos in the away goal but Ezri Konsa managed to block Odobert’s goal-bound effort on the line before soon after Palhinha’s 20-yard curler was tipped wide by Martinez.
Emery’s team swung back as John McGinn slipped in Donyell Malen but he fired into the side-netting under pressure from Van de Ven.
Both benches reacted, with Richarlison sent on for Spurs on the hour mark and Ollie Watkins introduced a minute later.
Frank prepared to roll the dice again with Lucas Bergvall and Randal Kolo Muani ready to come on but after Tottenham declined multiple chances to send them on, Villa punished the hosts in the 77th minute.
The visiting full-backs combined with Cash’s wonderful crossfield pass plucked out of the air by Digne, who teed up Buendia and he curled around a crowd of bodies to fool Vicario.
Bergvall and Kolo Muani were finally sent on before Frank tweaked his formation, but Brennan Johnson blazed over in stoppage-time as boos greeted full-time, with Tottenham winning only three of their last 18 home league games.
PA
