Aston Villa vs. Tottenham: Spurs ‘expecting the worst’ as relegation fears linger ahead of “strange” Premier League clash

Ahead of Sunday’s Premier League clash between Aston Villa and relegation-threatened Tottenham Hotspur, hear what the Sports Mole team have to say about the upcoming battle.

Ben Knapton, Site Coordinator: “Spurs have now come to expect the worst”

I think it was the best four minutes of Tottenham fans' season at Molineux, in between that [Joao] Palhinha goal and then Callum Wilson getting the winner for West Ham, a wonderful four minutes for Tottenham fans until the inevitable happened.

I think Spurs fans have just become numb to it now. The worst-case scenario has happened this season in this game, it's going to happen again in this game.

It doesn't take away from the absolute devastation of Callum Wilson scoring that last-minute winner for West Ham last weekend, but I do feel like Spurs fans have just now come to expect the worst, not just in this season, but as a famous Italian defender said, ‘it's the history of the Tottenham’, and I feel like now Spurs fans are, not embracing it, but they're accepting it, especially in this season.

The last two performances have been such an improvement on what happened under Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor, but the biggest hammer blow for me wasn't the West Ham winner, it was the injuries that happened after that.

Xavi Simons. ACL. Out for the season. Out for the World Cup. I spoke last week about how he could be absolutely huge for Spurs under [Roberto] De Zerbi. He had that great goal and great assist against Brighton, and then as he's starting to come into form, he's out for what looks like the rest of the calendar year, which is just absolutely devastating for him.

[Dominic] Solanke as well came off injured against Wolves. Looks like his hamstring's gone. He might be a few weeks. There were also reports a couple of days ago that [Randal] Kolo Muani had suffered an injury. Those were wide off the mark, thankfully, but it would be something to get three season-ending injuries in attack when they've already got [Dejan] Kulusevski out for the entire year [and James] Maddison's only just back.

So what can they do now to replace them? De Zerbi in his press conference named some quite bizarre solutions. They do have Kolo Muani fit right now, Mathys Tel is fit. Do you risk Maddison? Do you give him just a few minutes here and there in this game? He also mentioned you could play [Lucas] Bergvall on the left and Souza on the right, Souza on the left as well.

Just imagining for Spurs fans seeing a Souza, Kolo Muani and Bergvall front three – you just can't fathom that. Looking at where they were at the start of the season, beating Man City away and also giving PSG a good run for their money in the Super Cup, you're lost for words when you are thinking about this Tottenham season.

Even though it was a devastating way to end it at Wolves, the positives were there in terms of the win itself, in terms of the performance. Interestingly, since De Zerbi took charge, Spurs have had the most press sequences and possession won in the final third, so he's stamping his game plan on Spurs straight away, and the players are embracing it.

It remains to be seen how they can replace Simons and Solanke. I might be tempting fate, I do think things are at least looking up from a playing style perspective.

Ben Knapton, Site Coordinator: “You can’t expect Maddison to be the saviour”

With [Antonin] Kinsky, obviously Vicario having that hernia helps. He could have played his last game for Spurs. Already looks like he might be going to Inter Milan at the end of the season.

The way that Kinsky has bounced back from that (performance vs. Atletico Madrid in the Champions League), because there was that last-minute save in the Wolves game, I think in the 90th minute, that Joao Gomes free kick, and Kinsky springs across his line and keeps it out. It's a brilliant save technically, but just in terms of the context of the game, the context of the relegation fight, it makes it an even bigger save.

Seeing how he was mobbed by his teammates and the reaction he got from the fans after the game. It's a wonderful story for such a young goalkeeper. Kinsky is only in his early twenties. He could have even 20 years left in him as a goalkeeper, so it is going to be really interesting to see what happens with him this summer.

If Spurs do go down, will he be then number one in the Championship? If they stay up, will he be their number one in the Premier League? But of course, one step at a time with him, and that save last weekend, even if you are not a Spurs fan, you just can't help but smile at that given what he went through.

With Maddison, it's a really interesting one because he is still not been risked yet. I think there were concerns whether he would play again, whether he would even play a single minute of the campaign. I don't think you can put too much pressure on him at all.

We know what he can do when he's fully fit, but his recovery's gone quicker than expected, maybe not fast-tracked back into the first team. I don't think Spurs have pushed him back before he's ready. I think obviously they've done their due diligence.

He's not in the squad because they're just trying to make up the numbers, he's in because if needed he could make an impact. but I don't think you can expect him to be the saviour. That's putting too much pressure on a player who, on his day, is magnificent creatively. He could thrive like Xavi Simons did for a short space of time in that De Zerbi system, but for me, the biggest miss has been Kulusevski.

I love watching Kulusevski as a player, and it's just been such a mystery as to what's happened to him. It's been setback after setback for him. Having him out, having [Mohammed] Kudus out as well for so long, and Maddison, their creativity has just plummeted until Xavi Simons started to improve against Brighton before his ACL.

You can't put that pressure on Maddison, but if he can get maybe even just two or three appearances under his belt and just maybe lift the fans, lift the team, even if he can't get any direct contributions, then that could be a small factor. You never know.

Oliver Thomas, Senior Reporter: “Another frustrating afternoon for Tottenham”

I think for me, yes, they've beaten Wolves and they've lifted the spirits a little bit. Performances have improved slightly under De Zerbi, but for me, I'm not really convinced enough to suggest that they'll climb out of danger at the moment.

There's still, as a club, in a real mess, and of course, injuries have not helped their cause at all. That win over Wolves was overshadowed by those injuries to Xavi Simons and Solanke. Spurs now without arguably their most creative player and their first-choice centre forward, so that's a huge blow. I think Xavi Simons in particular, considering the impact he's had in recent games.

People keep saying that this is a good group of players at Tottenham when everyone's fit, there's quality in this Spurs side, but I've struggled to see where that is really. I know they've had these injury issues, but based on the evidence of this season and the performances of the players who have played regularly, overall, it's a surprise to see Spurs as a club down in the bottom three, but it's not a surprise really to see this Spurs team in the drop zone.

They've just been so poor overall and they're still in real trouble at the moment. I personally would be surprised to see Spurs win at Villa. I think it's a tough game, even if Villa do decide to rest some players with one eye on the Europa League. I think it could be another frustrating afternoon for Tottenham this weekend.

Matt Law, Football Editor: “It's difficult to know what you're going to get with Villa”

That’s a good point from Oliver that (Villa’s Europa League focus) will potentially help Tottenham, the fact that (Sunday’s game) does come in between those two big games.

Villa are sitting quite pretty in that top five at the moment. I know there's a lot to happen. I know Brighton and Bournemouth and a couple of others have got big performances in them and big results, and it's not certain that they will finish there, but I thought Villa were really poor last time out against Fulham.

Fulham played well in the game, but I’ve thought that a lot about Villa. I've seen quite a lot of Villa. There's games where they're brilliant and they move the ball really quickly and it's very exciting, and then there's other games where they're so poor and they create so little.

It's difficult to know what you're going to get with them. It does look like Unai Emery is going to be staying now. He's fallen out of contention in terms of the Man United talks. He got linked with Real Madrid at a time, but it doesn't seem like he's in the argument for that.

I think that's a positive that there's not much uncertainty going into next season in terms of the managerial, because if you took him out of that club - I think they've got good players, don't get me wrong - but I think they would struggle to progress as they'd like.

Ollie Watkins, 10 of his 11 goals have come since the start of December, so he is in decent form, obviously looking like he probably will go to the World Cup, certainly if he finishes the season well.

I think it's a strange game really, because it means more to Tottenham than it does to Villa. Tottenham have lost six of their last ten against Villa, but won four. It's a strange game really.

You mentioned earlier about me saying about Tottenham not going down. I'm struggling to see them staying up now, but I'm still going to stick with it. I'm going to stick with saying that they will stay up and West Ham will go down.

It’s a big weekend, isn't it? West Ham play Brentford away at 3:00pm on Saturday – that's a really big game there. If Brentford can do Tottenham a favour and then Tottenham could get a big result themselves, then they'll be in a decent enough position going into the last games. Big game for both sides, obviously more so for Tottenham.