Villa earn their spurs

Tottenham 1 Aston Villa 2: Nigel Reo-Coker and Ashley Young grabbed the goals for Aston Villa at White Hart Lane to consign …

Tottenham 1 Aston Villa 2:Nigel Reo-Coker and Ashley Young grabbed the goals for Aston Villa at White Hart Lane to consign Tottenham to their worst start in the Premier League.

Spurs could point to Dimitar Berbatov's transfer saga contributing to just a point from their opening three games, but this had nothing to do with the Bulgarian — Villa had too much pace and dealt with everything thrown at them.

Spurs goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes prevented Villa from adding to Reo-Coker's opener but it was then his mistake that gifted Young his strike in the second half. Darren Bent pulled one back for Spurs four minutes before full-time.

Reo-Coker gave the visitors the lead in the fifth minute and could have added another but his attempted cross struck the post.

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Villa's second goal started with Barry getting out of trouble in his own territory by tricking Jenas and Pavlyuchenko with a sharp turn.

He fed midfielder Young on the halfway line and the former Watford player headed towards goal, breezing past Dawson and then firing a skidding shot which crept under Gomes' dive.

Young's pace was causing Spurs problems, and Dawson picked up a booking for a block when the winger was running at the hosts at full speed.

The response from the hosts was to send on Giovani, with Dawson making way, while Carew had to be taken off after an injury sustained when he tried to clear the ball. James Milner came on to add numbers in midfield.

Darren Bent flashed a header wide for Spurs as they tried to get themselves back in the game.

He grabbed his goal with four minutes remaining when he failed to get out of the way of Jenas' shot — the ball struck his ankles and flew past Friedel.

But Spurs, despite plenty of late possession, failed to find an equaliser — and needed Jenas to prevent late substitute Marlon Harewood making it 3-1 to the visitors in injury-time.