Jose Mourinho has demanded his Tottenham players maintain their level of desire in bouncing back from a tough week to win 2–0 at Aston Villa on Sunday. Spurs threw a 2–0 first leg lead to fall out of the Europa League with a 3–0 defeat on Thursday by Dinamo Zagreb, losing 2–1 to Arsenal over the four-day North London derby. But he resurrected his hopes of a four-over Premier League finish as Karl Parkick and Karl Kane were the target of Villa Park.
Mourinho made eight changes in an attempt to elicit a backlash from the fall of his side in the Croatian capital and he got the result even if the performance was still desired.
Vinicius was assigned to a 4-4-2 change with Kane, with Gareth Bell and Dele Alli both falling on the bench despite Son Hyung-min’s absence through injury.
However, Mourinho said that effort and not strategy was the key to turning the Spurs into luck.
“Good result. Unbelievable attitude, total credit to the players for the unbelievable effort,” Mourinho said.
“I think our next challenge is not to play in this way as a reaction to a great performance, but with this soul, as a permanent thing.
“It’s not about strategy, but about attitude. The players gave their all.”
Dino’s manner of defeat and harsh words from Mourinho and captain Hugo Loris later sparked speculation as to how long former Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester United bosses would be given to turn Tottenham’s fortress around.
Mourinho is expected to be given the chance to end Tottenham’s 13-year wait to win the trophy in the League Cup final against Manchester City on 25 April.
And Tottenham still have life in the final nine league games of the campaign as they finish sixth and within three points of fourth-placed Chelsea.
“In the final couple of games, the attitude went down by our standards,” Kane said.
“(Today) you saw everyone fighting, putting their bodies on the line and that’s what we’ll need to give the top four a push.”
Felt absent
Villa has been a different side for the past month without the presence of Jack Grealish due to injury and once again his invention is recalled.
In the six games since Grealish picked up a leg injury, Villa have picked up just five points to end the possibility of a surprise push to the top four.
Villa boss Dean Smith said, “I told him ‘we can’t wait for Jack to come back.” “Everyone knows how good a player he is and not many have taken that opportunity (in his absence).”
Spurs barely threatened until a long ball at the top would open Villa on 29 minutes.
Emiliano Martinez raced to clean the outside of his box, but the loose ball fell to Lucas Moora, who joined him on loan from Benfica in October before passing with Kane to get out of the house for Vincius Exchanged passes with Ken.
Promoted
Kane then lured Matty Cash inside the box as an unnecessary donation, as the ball rolled harmlessly to the goal for 22 minutes on time.
Referee Mike Dean pointed to the chance for a soft penalty, but Kane did not care about the nature of the award as he sent Martinez the wrong way for his 27th goal of another outstanding individual season.
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