Tottenham vs Aston Villa Preview: One League Goal Between Them All Season, and a Ground Where Villa Keep Winning

Two clubs with no league win between them meet in north London on Saturday lunchtime, and the arithmetic is grim enough to be worth stating plainly: across eight combined Premier League matches this season, Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa have produced exactly one goal. Spurs sit seventeenth with two points and none scored. Villa are nineteenth with one point and one goal, courtesy of Alysson in last weekend’s home defeat to Nottingham Forest. One of these sides is about to get off the mark in the league. The other will spend the international break in the bottom three.

How the Season Has Gone So Far

Spurs began with back-to-back defeats to Brentford and Newcastle United, then drew 0-0 at home to Nottingham Forest and 0-0 at home to Everton. Add the midweek trip to Anfield — a 3-1 EFL Cup third-round defeat to Liverpool — and Roberto De Zerbi’s side are now four matches without a win in all competitions. The boos that greeted the Everton draw have been widely reported, and the patience that came with a summer of heavy spending and a long injury list is described as running thin.

Villa’s league record is three defeats and a draw from four. They lost 0-1 to Arsenal, drew 0-0 at Hull City, and were beaten 1-2 at home by Nottingham Forest last weekend, where Alysson scored their only top-flight goal of the campaign. But the wider picture is more encouraging: Unai Emery’s side won 3-2 away at Club Brugge in their Champions League opener and followed it with a 3-1 EFL Cup win at Coventry City on Tuesday, in which Tammy Abraham scored twice. Reports put Villa at seven goals across their last three matches in all competitions after managing one in their first four — the sharpest turnaround either club can point to.

Head-to-Head: Five Meetings, Four of Them Villa’s

Aston Villa have won four of the last five meetings in all competitions, with Tottenham’s 2-1 win at Villa Park in May the only exception. OneFootball records 180 competitive meetings overall — 80 Tottenham wins, 64 Villa wins — and 93 of those played at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where Spurs lead 48 to 31. The number that should worry the home support more: Villa have won five of their last seven visits to this ground.

Four Things to Watch

1. Spurs have not scored a league goal yet, and the attack is down to its bare bones

Four matches, no goals. Spurs are one of only two sides in the division yet to register, alongside Coventry City. The context is an absentee list that removes most of the creative depth: Dejan Kulusevski, Xavi Simons, Wilson Odobert and Mykhaylo Mudryk are all out, and Richarlison has been left out of the 25-man Premier League squad entirely. James Maddison has managed back-to-back substitute appearances and is the obvious candidate to change the shape of the front line.

2. Emery’s record against this opposition

Unai Emery has faced Tottenham fourteen times and won eight of them, drawing two and losing four. Against Roberto De Zerbi he has met the Italian five times with three wins to De Zerbi’s two. Whatever else is going wrong at Villa right now, their head coach has a long history of finding a way in this particular fixture.

3. The striker decision at both ends

Abraham’s double at Coventry puts real pressure on Nicolas Jackson, who has led the line in the league and scored in the Champions League. Previews are split on whether Emery rewards the midweek brace or sticks with his summer signing. At the other end, Dominic Solanke is the one name in both projected Tottenham sides and carries the burden of ending the drought — with Tyrone Mings, Villa’s senior centre-back, likely to be the man asked to stop him.

4. A depleted Villa defence against a side that must attack

Pau Torres is out with a hamstring problem and Ian Maatsen is expected to miss up to eight weeks with an ankle injury, so Villa’s back line is being rebuilt around Mings, Victor Lindelöf and summer signings Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Matteo Ruggeri. For a Spurs side that has to throw players forward to break its duck, that is the opening. For Villa, four straight league matches without a win means they cannot simply sit in.

Predicted Lineups

Neither club had named a starting eleven at the time of writing. The selections below follow projected line-ups published by The Stats Zone and WhichBookie. The two sources agree on most of the Spurs spine and differ at right-back, in midfield and on the left; for Villa they agree on the goalkeeper, three defenders and John McGinn, and differ at right-back, in midfield, out wide and up front. Treat all of it as provisional.

Two selection issues the previews disagree on

Pedro Porro and Sandro Tonali. The Stats Zone reports that De Zerbi has confirmed both will return after the right-back missed the Everton game and the midfielder sat out the cup defeat at Liverpool. WhichBookie still lists both as doubts. Until the team sheet lands, treat them as probable rather than certain.

João Gomes and Marco Bizot. Gomes has served a three-match suspension but missed the Coventry tie with a calf problem and faces a late fitness test; one outlet lists him as simply available, another still lists him under suspension. Bizot went off at half-time in midweek with a back issue, and reporting indicates Zion Suzuki will start in goal regardless of whether the Dutchman is fit.

Key Battle: Solanke Against Mings

Everything about this match runs through whether Spurs can score, and Solanke is the player both previews hand the number nine shirt. He has had no service worth the name in four league games — the midfield behind him has been reshuffled constantly, and with Kulusevski and Simons out, the creative burden falls on Maddison and Savio, neither of whom has put together ninety minutes recently. Mings, meanwhile, is the fixed point in a Villa defence missing Torres and Maatsen, and he will be asked to defend a box that Spurs are forced to flood. If he wins that contest early and Villa’s midfield steps in behind him, the home crowd turns and this becomes a very long afternoon for De Zerbi. If Solanke gets a sight of goal in the first twenty minutes, the relief alone changes the game.

Kit Note: White in North London, Claret in the Away End

Tottenham’s 2026/27 range is the deepest we carry: the current home and away shirts, a player-edition home, a long-sleeve home for the colder months, plus kids and womens cuts. Aston Villa are stocked in smaller numbers — the 2026/27 home shirt leads a rail that also includes two 1990s throwbacks from the 1996 campaign. Everything below is live in the shop and priced the same across every size, so browse the rails.

Tottenham Hotspur 2026/27 — home, away, player edition, long sleeve, kids and womens

Swipe to browse 6 Tottenham shirts

Tottenham Hotspur 26/27 Home Shirt

$38.90

Tottenham Away Shirt 2026/27

$35.99

Player Edition Tottenham Hotspur 26/27 Home Shirt

$38.90

Tottenham Home Shirt 2026/27 Long Sleeves

$42.80

Tottenham Home Shirt 2026/27 Kids

$35.99

Tottenham Home Shirt 2026/27 Women

$35.99

Aston Villa — the 2026/27 home shirt plus two 1990s throwbacks

Swipe to browse 3 Aston Villa shirts

Aston Villa 26/27 Home Shirt

$38.90

Aston Villa 1996 Black Out Retro Shirt (Collymore 11)

$35.90

Aston Villa 1996 Black Out Retro Shirt (Taylor 7)

$35.90

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