LONDON – Tottenham and Chelsea both suffered a blow in their pursuit of a top-four finish, with the Spurs paying the price for a goalkeeping errors against Aston Villa and the Blues slipping up against Nottingham Forest.
Chelsea dropped more points as Serge Aurier earned Nottingham Forest a 1-1 draw with Graham Potter’s side.
Fresh from their first league win in six games last time out against Bournemouth, Chelsea started well in the Nottingham drizzle, with Raheem Sterling firing them into the lead in the 16th minute with his first league goal since August.
Forest improved after the break and was desperately unlucky not to equalise early in the second-half as Morgan Gibbs-White’s drilled half volley hit the underside of the crossbar but bounced on the goal line and away.
The hosts kept coming and deservedly levelled things up as Aurier slotted home his first goal for his new club in the 63rd minute, with Forest looking the more likely winner from there on in.
They could not complete the turnaround, however, with Chelsea hanging on for a point that leaves them eighth in the standings, seven points behind Manchester United in fourth.
The hosts remain in the relegation zone but climbed to 18th, level on 14 points with West Ham United above them.
“I think overall when the game was controlled in the first half I don’t think we did well enough, our performance level wasn’t good enough, didn’t move the ball fast enough,” Potter said according to Reuters.
“They use their advantages which is the environment, the crowd. The second half we didn’t control it well enough.”
Elsewhere, Aston Villa continued its resurgence under Unai Emery with a hard-fought 2-0 away victory over Tottenham, AP reported.
Emiliano Buendia took advantage of an error by Hugo Lloris in the Spurs goal to open the scoring and Douglas Luiz doubled the advantage to secure a second consecutive away league victory for Villa.
Tottenham has endured a disappointing string of results with just two victories in the club´s last seven games undermining its push for a top-four finish.
Villa’s victory extended Emery´s unbeaten record against Tottenham to four games and inflicted more misery on Antonio Conte´s side, which has conceded first in its last 10 matches and has now dropped to fifth in the Premier League table.
Spurs struggled to create chances throughout and players were booed off after a third home defeat from their last five games.
While Tottenham was boosted by the return of World Cup finalists Cristian Romero and Lloris, Dejan Kulusevski became the latest player unavailable to Conte due to a minor muscle injury.
Romero´s compatriot Emiliano Martinez was also at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but only named on the Villa bench a fortnight on from his heroics in Lusail.
The visitors started the brighter side and Ollie Watkins came close to putting Villa ahead when he raced through down the left but the forward dragged his 14-yard shot wide.
It was not a sign of things to come with a lackluster opening half featuring as many yellow cards as shots.
Each of Tottenham’s three center backs received bookings in a rash nine-minute period with Ben Davies a touch fortunate after lunging into a tackle with Ashley Young.
Chances had been few and far between before Young was well placed to clear Harry Kane´s header off the line in the 40th minute after Ivan Perisic had rounded Robin Olsen in the Villa goal.
The chance woke up Conte´s side with Son Heung-min, who chucked away his protective mask midway through the half, curling a free-kick into the arms of the Swedish goalkeeper soon after.
Despite making it to the break without conceding, Tottenham´s habit of falling behind continued five minutes into the second period.
Lloris was at fault in his first appearance since the World Cup final and Buendia profited.
Luiz’s shot from range was spilled by Lloris and the alert Watkins reacted quickest to tee up Buendia, who slotted home from close range to help make up for his Qatar disappointment after he failed to make Argentina´s squad.
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