please log in to view this image Wednesday 19th May 6pm Premier League Tottenham Hotspur Stadium The decent performance against Wolves has put us in a decent position to finish the season. We all know what that means, so we can expect disappointment in this match, which people can actually go to. Heading to Leicester on the final day in need of point would not be ideal, so it's important to win this one. Villa don't really have anything to play for, but we've seen some sides improve with the pressure off. Can Mason finish things off in style in our last home game or will Dean Smith keep his men off the beach? Last season was Dean Smith's first in the Premier League and his first full campaign with Villa. He took over from Steve Bruce in October of the previous one and earned promotion via the play-offs. It's fair to say that they struggled badly at times, but a late surge pulled them out of the relegation zone. Two wins and two draws from the last four matches was enough to keep them up and raise some hopes. Some intelligent signings and the form of Jack Grealish upped them even more. The Midlanders flew out of the traps this time and won all of their first four matches. The 7-2 victory over Liverpool was the obvious highlight and Watkins looked like an inspired transfer. Things settled down after that, but they've never been out of mid-table or looked like a relegation candidate. They've struggled without their talisman recently, though he should be available for them for this match. Progress was what they wanted at the start and they've definitely had that, so they'll be happy. This fixture was the opening game of last season, so it's been quite a large gap between the two matches. We got off to a poor start and conceded a sloppy early goal to John McGinn in the first ten minutes. We dominated possession, but huffed and puffed until the introduction of Eriksen and a system change. Ndombele levelled things up on his debut, then Grealish was caught napping by Lamela outside his box. Kane fired home to put us ahead, then grabbed another to kill it off late on: Our visit to Villa Park this season was in March, so it's pretty fresh in the memory and a bit of an oddity. We were in an appalling run of form and picked a weird team selection, but came away with three points. A fairly sedate first half was livened up by a mistake from Martinez, Villa's goalkeeper. His misjudged kick resulted in a couple of quick passes and a tap-in from Vinicius. The second looked like it might be getting away from us, until a stupid foul from Cash gave Kane a penalty: Davies is out for the rest of the season, though Aurier could return. Bale is a fitness doubt. Trezeguet, Sanson and Cash are out for the visitors, while Mings faces a test on his knee. Neither side has any suspensions. Lineups for each side's last league game: Spurs: Lloris; Tanganga, Alderweireld, Dier, Reguilon; Lo Celso, Hojbjerg; Bale, Alli, Son; Kane. Subs: Hart, Doherty, Sanchez, Winks, Ndombele, Sissoko, Bergwijn, Lamela, Moura. League form: LDWWLW. Villa: Martinez; Elmohamady, Konsa, Hause, Targett; Luiz, Ramsey; Traore, McGinn, El Ghazi; Watkins. Subs: Steer, Engels, Taylor, Nakamba, Barkley, Chukwuemeka, Grealish, Davis, Wesley. League form: LDWLDL. Ref: Craig Pawson. VAR: Kevin Friend. TV: Sky Sports. How would you like to line up for this one and what would you change from the Wolves game? Would you stick with much of the same lineup, make a few changes or go for a wholesale switch? Which system and tactics would you use and what are you expecting Villa to go with?
Hood of Kane's camp to take all attention off a game which could 1. Get us EL football 2. Guarantee we finish above the goons 3. Is the first game for thousands of fans in 14 months.... Only at Spurs
I hope that everyone who has a ticket leaves their hatred of Levy and ENIC at the turnstile and concentrates 100% on cheering and supporting the team.
Didn't Mason say Bale was likely to miss this one a few days ago? I vaguely remember headlines about it
Interesting that Lo Celso drops out. He's been really poor since returning from injury. The fact that Harry Winks is the go-to option is pretty depressing though. I'm ok with him and Bergwijn coming in as the Leicester game now actually looks like it'll be a horrendously tough fixture as we'll be fighting for the EL and they for the CL. But they've both had such scarce playing time this season, which is hardly Mason's fault but at a critical time of the season (we need to avoid the Vauxhall Conference League like the plague), it might come back to bite him. Baffling that Lucas/Lamela don't get the nod ahead of him but maybe there is a 'shop window' element here.
Aston Villa XI: Martinez, Hause, Konsa, Mings, Targett, McGinn, Nakamba, Grealish, Traore, Watkins, El Ghazi. Subs: Steer, Taylor, Luiz, Wesley, Barkley, Elmohamady, Ramsey, Philogene-Bidace, Chukwuemeka. Grealish and Watkins start. No idea who's playing right-back for Villa, but it looks like both sides are using a centre-half there.
He played well against Wolves and Sheffield United, in my opinion. Still not 100% and he's playing out of position, but he's done ok.
I shouldn;t say this, but I think looking at the teams that there will be goals tonight, can't see either side keeping a clean sheet ........Nil - Nil it is then C O Y S
Serious question...WTF makes Eric Dier a certainty to start for us under Pochettino, JM and Mason? And England? All I see is a poor mans version of Anthony Gardner
