Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa: FA Cup third round – as it happened

And here is Sachin Nakrani’s match report from White Hart Lane:

Job done for Spurs. Not an outstanding performance by any means, but it was better in the second half and the subs had a big impact. They’re through to the next round, and Villa slink home in despair. Or can concentrate on winning promotion. One of the two.

90 mins + 3: Should be three for Spurs, after Onomah does good work to play in Son, but he dithers a little too long and Johnstone rushes out to smother the effort.

90 mins: McCormack has a go at another free-kick, but he thunks this one straight into the wall. Not going brilliantly for him at the Villa.

89 mins: Villa looking for a consolation, as McCormack lines up a free-kick...but puts it over the bar. The trouble with their first-half bus-parking was that it’s quite difficult to change when required. And they haven’t done a good enough job of doing that.

87 mins: Alli tries a backheel, but that’s an Olé! too far. Spurs have looked a changed team since he came on, though.

85 mins: Close for Spurs, as N’Koudou makes fine tracks down the left side of the box, slides a cross into the area but it’s about half a yard ahead of Onomah.

84 mins: Sub for Spurs, as Josh Onomah is on for Sissoko.

82 mins: That’ll be that, presumably. This second half has been better, but that was quite a low bar to hurdle.

80 mins: Nice goal, that. N’Koudou booms a big ball from left to right, Trippier plays it to Sissoko, who plays it back to Trippier, who plays it back to Sissoko, who runs into the area on the right, slips a nice square to Son who slots it home neatly. Nice goal, that.

79 mins: Sissoko is through, finding himself free on goal from the left side of the box, he opens his body and tries to guide it into the far corner, but Johnstone stops it with his knee.

78 mins: There’s something you don’t see every day - Vorm makes something of a mess of a clearance and drills it at about shin-height, but the ball makes it all the way to Son up front...and he’s flagged offside.

77 mins: TRIPLE SUBSTITUTION. Villa go big, as Adomah, Agbonlahor and Jedinak are withdrawn, and in their places come Ross McCormack, Keinan Davis and Andre Green.

74 mins: Dier then tries another shot from way out, which goes about 20 yards over the bar. Somewhere between the last two Eric, and you’ll be grand.

73 mins: Dier gets a free-kick just outside the box to the right of centre, which he shoots straight into the wall. It’s not Marseille anymore, Eric.

71 mins: Instant impact from the sub N’Koudou, who exchanges passes with Alli then crosses for Davies, who for some reason finds himself eight yards out, and he directs a delightful header into the far corner. Lovely stuff.

69 mins: Alli feeds Winks, who shoots but it’s deflected, and Johnstone saves. Another switch for Spurs - Georges-Kevin N’Koudou is on for Alderweireld.

67 mins: Spurs sweep diagonally across the pitch, and Davies gets the ball on the left of the area, but crosses without looking up - if he had, he might have seen that there was no forward in the box waiting for the ball.

65 mins: Close! Two quick chances for Villa, as a free-kick into the box falls for Baker, whose effort is brilliantly blocked by Carter-Vickers, then the ball squirts to Agbonlahor, who doesn’t quite get enough on the shot, which is saved. Could, perhaps should’ve been a goal.

62 mins: A rare Villa attack, as Adomah skips down the right, clips a cross into the middle towards Tshibola, but Carter-Vickers LLP heads away. Spurs then go up the other end and Son launches a ferocious shot towards goal, which Johnstone does well to tip over the bar.

61 mins: David Wall thinks we should go the other way on the replays debate: “Rather than abolishing replays I’d like to see the limit to one replay abolished so that there was the possibility of those marathon ties over 3 or 4 games that were so distinctive of the FA Cup in past seasons. And, perversely, I think it might encourage teams to go for the win. It’s one thing to play cautiously and face just an extra game. It’s another altogether to risk having to play an extra two or three games that would probably have an Isner-Mahut-like effect of destroying the rest of your season through exhaustion and fixture pile-up.”

60 mins: Sub for Spurs, as Janssen trudges off, Alli replacing him. A change in system, perhaps?

58 mins: Corner for Spurs on the right, which Trippier pings into the near post where Janssen gets a head to it, but it goes wide. There’s a hint of a deflection off Baker, but ref Dean - disappointingly low-key thus far - says no corner.

56 mins: The Villa fans seem to be having quite a nice time. So that’s good. It’s nice to have a nice time.

55 mins: Looks like Dele Alli is about to come on, in order to give this game a kick in the pants.

54 mins: Winks dispossesses Grealish about halfway inside his own half, then runs to the other end of the pitch and, after exchanging passes with Son, crosses towards Sissoko, but that ball is intercepted and cleared.

53 mins: Adam Griffiths is back: “Sam Johnstone. Green shirt, black boots, haircut you can set your watch to. Proper goalie look. Easily man of the match on those grounds alone.”

51 mins: Oh good lord. Trippier crosses from the right, brilliantly, and it reaches Son at the back stick, on the corner of the six-yard box. He has time to control it, compose himself, pick his spot...but scuffs it and the ball dribbles along the edge of the six yard box.

49 mins: Adomah skims a cross over from the right, finding Bacuna on the left. Nothing comes of it, but at least there’s some smidgen of attacking intent from Villa.

46 mins: We’re back. Janssen has a shot in the first few seconds of the half. It’s straight at the keeper, but it’s a good start.

Some thoughts on the ‘abolishing replays’ debate:

Kelvin: “I doubt abolishing replays would help matters. I think lower league teams would be happier to defend and wait for penalties. They have a much higher chance of winning via penalties than ‘going all out for it.’”

Robert Coughlan: “You only have to consider today’s Liverpool-Plymouth. The latter had every incentive to hold out for bringing this crack EPL team down to their local stadium...”

Adrian Low: “Why don’t we do the more exciting penalty shoot out, and if there is a tie, we can do 90 minutes of football.”

“Mike Dean blew up exactly as the clock ticked over from 44:59,” writes Martin Gamage. “I don’t think he fancied any more of that either. “See if you can do any better in 15 eh lads?”

Not all heroes wear capes, Martin.

Debate! Do we think this?

“I went to sort out the recycling for tomorrow pretty confident I wouldn’t miss much,” writes Adam Griffiths. “On the plus side, the second half must be better. Mustn’t it?”

It does seem a little churlish to complain about a lower-league team sitting deep and defending a lot in an FA Cup game, and one doesn’t wish to labour the point...but man this is desperate.

45 mins: Carter-Vickers stabs out a bad touch by Agbonlahor, and the Villa man lets out a remarkably high-pitched squeal of frustration that a corner isn’t given.

43 mins: Almost a moment of high slapstick to liven things up. Son and Janssen play a one-two, the Korean winger is through in the box but slightly miscontrols, Amavi gets a foot to it and nearly puts it into the corner of his own net. It drifts just wide.

41 mins: No.

40 mins: Winks tries to battle through about four Villa players, doesn’t manage it but a combination of Davies and Janssen earns Spurs a corner. Can they do anything with it?

38 mins: In a game earlier this season Janssen was clocked as (I think) Tottenham’s second-quickest player, but he looks so, so slow most of the time, maybe in thought rather than legs.

37 mins: A brief moment of football breaks out: Sissoko slips a nice ball to Davies down the left side of the box, but the low cross goes behind anyone who might have been able to do anything with it.

35 mins: Divij Jain suggests: “How about Arsenal’s duo of Jeff Reine-Adelaide and Ainsley Maitland-Niles?” I’m having the latter, but not the former. Is ‘Jeff’ a surname?

34 mins: This is a bad game. A bad game of football. Help.

31 mins: Grealish delivers, but after a bit of loopy head tennis, it’s cleared. The ball eventually makes its way back to Grealish, who belts a shot that drifts high, high, high into the stands.

30 mins: Adomah is felled by Dier on the right corner of the area, but Steve Bruce is cross because an advantage would have been rather more useful for Villa. But, here’s the free-kick...

29 mins: A shot! On target! Well, after a fashion. Bacuna lines one up from range, doesn’t hit it with much power and it’s straight at Vorm, but it was one of those that dipped late so could have caused him the odd problem. But, it didn’t.

28 mins: A few more sportspeople as law firms to stave off the urge to go for a long walk in the woods, via Jack Painter: “There are a few of NBA players that you may be interested in: Michael Carter-Williams, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Micahael Kidd-Gilchrist and Willey Cauley-Stein.”

26 mins: Meanwhile, in Chelsea’s game against Peterborough, John Terry has been sent off for some last man naughtiness. No huge drama though as they’re 3-0 up with 20-odd minutes left.

Actually, since there’s not much going on in this game, you could read this interview with Peterborough’s Leo Da Silva Lopes. Everyone seems to think this kid is going to be a star.

24 mins: Dier curls a ball over the top looking for the run of Trippier down the right, but it’s too strong for the wing-back and the tedium continues. Still, we’re all a few minutes closer to the merciful release of the infinite, so that’s something.

22 mins: Johnstone punches a corner clear.

Nothing.
Else.
Is.
Happening.

21 mins: Not really to do with this game but here’s Adam Griffiths, with an absolutely top-drawer email: “Brighton’s back four of Duffy, Dunk, Bruno and Bong sounds like a drum and bass combo from the 1990s.”

19 mins: Villa have a corner, which Grealish pings to somewhere near the penalty spot, but Baker barges into Dier’s back and a free-kick is awarded.

18 mins: Just had a flapjack. 6/10, from the vending machine. Not much else to report.

15 mins: Agbonlahor does well in the area and gets a cutback cross into the area, but as suggested by the summary of Villa’s formation, the cavalry wasn’t exactly charging forwards. Dier clears.

14 mins: On players as legal firms, the terrifically-named Tobias Seamon writes: “It’s not a football player but in the NFL there’s recently retired BenJarvus Green-Ellis. Once a running back, now on TV asking if you’ve been in a car accident or had a fall at work.”

13 mins: Give the people what they want, MD.

12 mins: Incidentally, Villa’s formation looks something like 4-5-----------------1. Could be a long old afternoon for a very isolated Agbonlahor.

11 mins: Davies makes a run inside from the left and Son tries a one-two with Janssen to set the Welshman up, but no dice as the massed Villa defence blocks their path.

9 mins: Can a pass be too diagonal? Not sure. But the fact it’s even worth remarking upon does tell you there’s not much in the football to be excited about right now.

8 mins: Alderweireld lopes out of defence and tries one of his long diagonals to Davies on the left, but it’s too long and, if you will, too diagonal, and goes out for a throw.

6 mins: Slow start. Both teams thus far like a polite group at a buffet, neither wanting to go up and get stuck into the cheese on cocktail sticks first.

4 mins: The first excitement of the day comes as Sissoko absolutely batters his way through the middle of the Villa side, but doesn’t have a great deal of support and is eventually stopped by Baker, around 35 yards from the Villa goal. He’s been decent recently, has Moussa.

2 mins: Cameron Carter-Vickers, highly rated at Spurs, starts this one, and is one of a number of young players around these days who sound like minor law firms. Your nominations for similar, please...

1 min: We. Are. A. Way.

The main man has whistle in hand...

Our own Dan Lucas is gasming. “Statgasm,” he writes, “There are as many league positions between Spurs and Villa as there are between yesterday’s pair of Crystal Palace and Bolton. I’m being liberal with the “gasm” suffix.”

The theme in the emails seems to be nervous yet a bit optimistic Villa fans. Well, sort of. “Having seen the ‘performance’ of Gardner and Westwood in the first half against Cardiff, Bruce had little choice but to make the changes he has,” writes Adam Griffiths. “Westwood and Gardner had nine (nine!) touches of the ball between them in forty five minutes. By contrast Tshibola had forty something in the second half. I’d have preferred a three man midfield, no Alan Hutton, and no Gabby today but what can you do but trust the manager? Still. It’s the FA Cup. Anything can happen in the FA Cup. That noise you just heard was my fingers being overly crossed.”

“Given Mike Dean’s record of sending off players from Spurs’ opponents,” writes our friend ‘Specs’, “I reckons we’ll lose Alan blimmin’ Hutton (second yellow, 70th minute) on our way to a 3-0 defeat. On the plus side a) I’m looking forward to seeing what Johnstone can bring to the ‘keepers shirt and b) I have a habit of being wrong about all sorts of football stuff and c) I loves me the FA Cup. So there’s that. Let’s just hope that football* is the winner.”

*Villa.

Some Villa fans aren’t massively chuffed with that team. “Long suffering Villa fan here,” writes David Bertram. “Agree about the lack of midfield (and keeping today’s score in single figures). However, the choice of Gabby as striker is unbelievable. The Spurs back line get a day off.”

You’ll no doubt have noticed and have been thrilled by the news that Mike Dean is refereeing this one. Here’s what Stephen Hunt wrote about him in his column for the Irish Sunday Independent last weekend:

He’s the most arrogant referee going. In fact, he’s probably the most arrogant man I’ve ever met on a football pitch. At least you could have banter with players, no matter what they were like. I’ve come across some big players in my time and there were times when you’d be thinking, ‘I can’t believe he’s said something like that’, but, even in that context, Dean takes the cake. He just won’t talk to you. He dismisses you like you’re a piece of dirt.

Looks like a 3-4-3 for Spurs, then, with Kane, Christian Eriksen, Mousa Dembele and the two full-backs given the day off entirely. Villa chuck keeper Sam Johnstone straight into the team having signed him on loan the other day, while Gabby Agbonlahor comes in for Ross McCormack up top, and there’s a new central midfield after their loss to Cardiff last time out: Mile Jedinak and Aaron Tshibola replace Gary Gardner and Ashley Westwood.