Opposition watch | Aston Villa

Ahead of Sunday's Premier League showdown at Villa Park (1pm UK), here's a closer look at Unai Emery's men...

Form

Villa are a team capable of putting winning runs together. A look through this season reveals five wins in six on two occasions - September-October, November-December - and, at the moment, they've won four of their last five to sit fourth in the Premier League, five points ahead of us having played a game more. Home form is key, and the ultimate mix of a winning sequence and home form came together in early December, when they beat City and Arsenal back-to-back in the space of four days at Villa Park. They've won 10 of 13 in the league at home so far this term, but they have lost at home recently to both Newcastle and Manchester United. 

Players to watch

It starts with Ollie Watkins, Villa's talisman is not only second (behind City's Erling Haaland) in the Premier League goalscoring stakes at the moment with 16 goals, he's also weighed in with 10 assists - that's joint top with Pascal Gross and Kieran Trippier. Ange Postecoglou described him as 'outstanding' and he's one to keep an eye on. Leon Bailey has also impressed, contributing eight goals and eight assists, buzzing around the forward areas with Watkins and Jacob Ramsey. John McGinn and Douglas Luiz provide a formidable pairing in the engine room while Spain international defender Pau Torres has impressed since joining from Villareal.

Manager - Unai Emery

Villa were 16th in the Premier League when Unai Emery arrived in place of Steven Gerrard in November, 2022. By the end of the season in May, they'd finished seventh. Club records tumbled in that time as Villa won five on the trot in the Premier League for the first time since 1998 and seven at home on the spin for the first time since 1992/93. A professional at Segunda Division level in Spain, Emery's hat-trick of Europa League titles (2014-2016) in charge at Sevilla caught the eye of PSG, and he won the treble in France in 2017/18 but lost out to Barcelona and then Real Madrid in the Champions League. Arsenal came calling in 2018, but he didn't have the best of times at the Emirates - although he did reach another Europa League Final, beaten this time by Chelsea in 2019 - before returning to Spain and Villareal in November, 2019. Incredibly, he landed another Europa League title - his fourth - before moving back to the Premier League.

Last time we met

We had a number of players out when Villa came calling in November - Cuti Romero, Micky van de Ven, Yves Bissouma, Pape Matar Sarr and James Maddison all missing - yet we took the game to Unai Emery's men. A fine first half display saw us create numerous chances before taking the lead through Gio Lo Celso on 22 minutes, but we then lost Rodrigo Bentancur to injury and a suffered a body blow when Villa levelled in the seventh minute of added time. Ollie Watkins converted what turned out to be the winner just after the hour. Emiliano Martinez saved from Pedro Porro, Brennan Johnson and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Heung-Min Son had a second goal of the night ruled out for offside after Porro struck the post. The performance deserved more, but it wasn't to be...

How to follow

Sunday's match will be televised live by Sky Sports with live radio commentary on BBC Five Live. You can listen to BBC Radio London's commentary via our Match Centre here on tottenhamhotspur.com and the Official Spurs app, where you’ll also find minute-by-minute text, goal alerts, stats and much more. Look out for our social media updates on X and Instagram. Video highlights will be available on SPURSPLAY from 5pm, with the full 90 minutes available to watch on demand from midnight. Also, look out for our Review Show with post-match reaction and analysis from presenter Ben Haines and guests on SPURSPLAYand YouTube. Worldwide broadcast listings are available via the link on this page...