Buendia seals comeback win for Villa at Tottenham

LONDON - Emiliano Buendia came off the bench to secure Aston Villa an impressive 2-1 comeback win at Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Sunday after Morgan Rogers struck a superb equaliser for the visitors.

Tottenham made a flying start when Rodrigo Bentancur put them in front with a close-range finish in the fifth minute after Joao Palhinha headed back a deep Mohammed Kudus cross.

But Villa, who arrived in north London on a seven-match unbeaten run in all competitions, levelled in the 37th minute when England midfielder Rogers let fly with a dipping right-foot shot from the edge of the area that flew past Guglielmo Vicario.

VILLA QUALITY GOAL

Both sides had chances after the break but it was Villa who looked the more threatening and they took the points with another goal of real quality.

Matty Cash's diagonal ball was controlled by Lucas Digne into the path of Buendia, and he whipped a clinical left-footed shot past the dive of Vicario in front of the joyous visiting fans.

After a slow start to the campaign, Villa have now won five matches in a row in all competitions and are 10th in the table with 12 points while a second league loss of the season for Tottenham left them in sixth, behind Chelsea on goal difference.

It has been quite a couple of weeks for Rogers who has emerged as an unlikely challenger to Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham for a place in Thomas Tuchel's England's midfield at next year's World Cup finals.

He scored his first senior international goal 10 days ago in the friendly win over Wales at Wembley and earned his ninth cap in the thrashing of Latvia and on Sunday found the net in a Premier League game for the first time since April.

"He always does his tasks, always," Aston Villa manager Unai Emery said of the 23-year-old. "It's been coming, this performance."

SOBERING AFTERNOON FOR SPURS

It was a sobering afternoon for Tottenham who would have gone second in the standings with a win, but after good starts to both halves they faded and lacked creativity in the final third.

They have now won only three of their last 18 Premier League games at home, stretching back to the Ange Postecoglou reign.

"I think 1-1 would've been a fair result," said Spurs manager Thomas Frank, who had to make do without his skipper Christian Romero after he injured an abductor muscle in the warm-up.

"Villa scored two goals from outside the box in moments where you wouldn't expect them to score. Fair play for their moments of quality. We also easily could've won."

Tottenham will feel they should have capitalised on their great start and had Kudus not needlessly strayed offside before finding the net shortly after Bentancur's opener, things may have been different.

They now have a tough run of fixtures starting at AS Monaco in the Champions League on Wednesday before an away trip to Everton and a League Cup last-16 tie at Newcastle United. REUTERS