Harry Kane's double plus a goal from new signing Tanguy Ndombele gave Tottenham a hard fought 3-1 win over Aston Villa at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the Premier League. McGinn had given Aston Villa the lead inside the opening 10 minutes.
Tottenham Hotspur took away the three points after a hard fought victory over newly promoted Aston Villa side thanks to three goals inside the last twenty minutes thanks to Ndombele and a brace from Harry Kane. John McGinn had stunned the home fans by giving Villa a shock lead early on.
Spurs started the game strongly and Lucas Moura had two chances in the first five minutes. One which he hit over after 16 seconds when he dispossessed El Mohamady and then he headed at Heaton after a nice cross in by Rose. However, against the run of play, they fell behind in the ninth minute.
Tyrone Mings, who was rock solid in the Villa defence, sent a hopeful ball forward which fell to McGinn 25 yards out and after a few touches, he slotted it past Lloris into the far corner. After the goal, Villa's decided to defend and just play on the counter, something which worked well for most of the game. Spurs were limited to very few chances and in fact, Villa nearly made it two after 21 minutes. A great pass found Trezeguet inside the box and his shot towards goal was blocked by Davinson Sanchez.
Spurs' frustration grew throughout the rest of the first half and were constantly making fouls. In fact, Villa again nearly made it 0-2 after Spurs lost the ball from a corner and a Grealish on the counter played in Trezeguet. However, his shot at Lloris was weak and Spurs got away with it. Kane then fired over in the 34th minute after Villa lost the ball, but Spurs only really got going in the last few minutes of the first period.
Sissoko hit a powerful effort over Heaton's goal and then Kane had two brilliant chances right on half-time. First, he headed over from a few yards out after Ndombele's looping pass from the edge of the box and then Lamela played him one on one with the goalie, but his effort went wide. Had he scored, the VAR may have overturned the offside call given against him. Villa were very comfortable going into half-time, but all that changed in the second period.
Spurs came out firing with numerous dangerous balls into the area and Sissoko inexplicably struck his shot wide of the goal after Moura flicked on Lamela's cross five minutes after the restart. The shot went so wide, it went out for a throw-in. Lamela then saw a strike deflected by Mings for a corner and Ndombele hit one wide, but after Christian Eriksen's introduction in the 65th minute, Villa were evidently struggling to hold on.
Alderweireld, Kane and Lamela all had opportunities to level straight after the Dane's introduction with Mings denying Kane and Lamela. In fact, Mings cleared the Argentine's effort off the line after Heaton came out to clear, but only headed it to Lamela. The Spurs siege continued with numerous long balls being sent into the box, but 17 minutes from time, Spurs got their reward.
Mings half-cleared the corner, Sanchez was then denied by a tremendous Heaton save, but Kane and Moura passed it to Ndombele just outside the box and he curled it into the GK's left hand corner. Eriksen was then denied by Heaton as Spurs looked for a winner before Alderweireld wanted handball after his strike hit Kodija on the arm. However, in the 86th minute, Kane was Spurs' hero.
Lamela dispossessed Grealish and his pass through to Kane was deflected by both Mings and Engels before the England international picked up the loose ball and scored. Four minutes later, he was on target again as Sissoko ran 30 yards from the centre-circle before picking out Kane to his left and he made no mistake. His shot went right into the far corner and Tom Heaton was unable to reach it. McGinn had a shot right at the end for Villa, but it went well wide and Spurs got off to the new season with a winning start in front of their home crowd.
Aston Villa, who made wholesale changes in the transfer window, put up a very good performance, but ultimately a combination of tiredness and class saw them come up short right at the end. Spurs will be hoping to play like they did in the second half for many more times this season as they have the potential to challenge the top sides once again this campaign.