Aston Villa boss refreshingly gracious in defeat

Aston Villa managed Dean Smith saw his side take a one goal lead against Tottenham Hotspur in their opening fixture of the Premier League season.

The boyhood Villa fab guided his side back to the top flight last season after navigating their way through the play offs.

Despite Tottenham enjoying the lions share of the opening proceedings during the contest in North London, it was Villa who broke the deadlock.

The goal came in nine minutes when Mings, out on the left, played a long down the middle to McGinn who was immediately clear of Sanchez, who was woefully out of position.

Rose tried to catch him but the midfielder slotted past Lloris.

Spurs continued to bombard the Villa goal and got their reward late in the second half with three goals to ensure Mauricio Pochettino’s side took all three points.

After the match, Villa boss Smith admitted that Spurs deserved the victory and felt this players did not perform to the required level in the second half.

He told the Birmingham Mail: “It was always going to be a baptism of fire coming here,”

“Performance-wise I thought we were very good. Defensive organisation was very good. We came up against a superior team who deserved to win at the end.

“A few of their goals: one deflected of Tyrone, another ricocheted between Tyrone and Engels and the third one we were chasing trying to get back into it.

“I was disappointed with our second half performance really. We were too cheap on the ball, gave it away very cheaply. Never retained the ball and giving the ball away and chasing as hard as we did today, defensively, I just thought their physicality shown through at the end hence them getting the win.

“We want players to express themselves. I thought Wesley was a handful up front without having too much of the ball. I didn’t think he was protected enough to be honest throughout the game. A number of challenges weren’t given against him and that’s something we’ve got to get used to.”

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