Villa capital gains after rare comeback victory

WHAT a Sunday afternoon that was for Aston Villa.

- By JOHN TOWNLEY

Exactly one year after last winning a league game having fallen behind on the road, Villa claimed their fifth win in a row in all competitions.

Rodrigo Bentancur opened the scoring for Tottenham early on before Morgan Rogers scored his first of the season in claret and blue, firing past Guglielmo Vicario from distance.

Emi Buendia then came off the bench to complete the comeback for Villa, finishing what was another brilliant goal for Unai Emery’s side.

Here are the talking points from Villa's win...

Villa's comeback in the capital

Coming back from behind away from home is often the mark of a team with strong character and mentality.

But Villa had lost 10 of their previous 11 away league games in which they'd trailed before beating Spurs on Sunday.

So, after winning four matches before the weekend, just what could a victory of that nature do for Villa’s confidence?

It was such a poor start to the season that a slender 1-0 win against Bologna felt more like relief than anything else, before a more convincing victory over Fulham a few days later.

Winning in Rotterdam meant so much for everyone connected to Villa - not only because it extended the winning run and made it two from two in Europe, but also because of what happened at De Kuip 43 years ago.

Beating Burnley was routine more than anything else, but travelling to Spurs began a difficult run of league fixtures for the club, with Man City and Liverpool to come, before highflying Bournemouth head to B6 ahead of the November break.

Leaving Tottenham with a result was hugely important for Villa - for their confidence, more than anything else. It's their first statement result of the campaign.

Only Man City have won more PL games than Aston Villa since the start of March.

Today was their first away league win from behind in exactly a year, after losing 10 of their last 11 when trailing away.

Benefits of strength in depth