The closer Tottenham went to scoring the more it seemed likely they would concede. "Too fragile" was how boss Roberto de Zerbi described his side after the 3-2 defeat by Aston Villa. Comfortable and on top until Johan Manzambi's scrappy opener for the visitors - while Spurs were temporarily down to 10 men as Micky van de Ven had treatment - they never recovered.
It only got worse as goals from Nicolas Jackson and Emi Buendia put the visitors 3-0 up. De Zerbi's men now go into a three-week international break still waiting for a first Premier League win this season as Conor Gallagher and Jan Paul van Hecke's late goals - the club's first in the league - were of little consolation. In the bottom three after spending over £300m in the summer there appears to be no end in sight to Spurs' struggles.
Tottenham have failed to win any of their last 36 Premier League matches when conceding first so the writing was on the wall at half-time. They dominated the opening 20 minutes and Villa keeper Zion Suzuki denied Savio and Archie Gray but, without a goal, they were always going to be vulnerable at the other end. And so, in first-half injury time, a Villa goal was almost inevitable.
Andy Robertson tried to stop a corner but only gifted the ball to John McGinn and, after Boubacar Kamara's effort, Manzambi prodded in from close range. It added the insult to Van de Ven's injury, a blow to the face that kept him off the pitch. Some Tottenham fans missed the goal as they headed for their half-time refreshments but several thousand did not bother to stay until the end.
They streamed out of the stands after Buendia's brilliant 25-yard bullet found the top corner in the 79th minute, missing Gallagher and Van Hecke's late efforts. De Zerbi said: "My focus is why we concede the first goal with 10 players, we can stay stronger, communicate more and more, defend in a compact way. "I put [Rodrigo] Bentancur as a centre-back in that minute and Mateus Fernandes as a midfielder.
If we have a red card we can play 70 minutes with 10 players. "In the second half we scored the goal with [Mohammed] Kudus, offside, I don't know if some players lost energy but we conceded an unacceptable goal. We knew this season Aston Villa are playing 86% more long balls than last season.
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