Tottenham Hotspur picked up a much-needed three points on Sunday night as they beat Aston Villa 2-0 at Villa Park.
Spurs were beaten 3-0 by Dinamo Zagreb on Thursday night, crashing out of the Europa League in embarrassing circumstances having squandered a 2-0 lead.
Jose Mourinho needed a win, and he got exactly that as Carlos Vinicius and Harry Kane scored the goals in what proved to be a comfortable win.
Mourinho made bold decisions with his starting XI, most notably going with a front two as Vinicius and Kane featured up top.
Both got themselves on the scoresheet, and Mourinho may be tempted to stick with them moving forward – though Son Heung-min’s return will be a factor.
Vinicius is ultimately playing for a permanent move to Spurs given that he is only on loan from Benfica, and last night’s performance won’t have hurt his chance of staying in North London.
Gary Neville spoke during coverage of the game on Sky Sports (8:57pm) that he actually liked Kane and Vinicius playing up top together, even if they weren’t brilliant.
Neville felt both were a threat and gave the Aston Villa defence a real game, particularly praising Kane having wondered whether he would like playing with a target man alongside him.
“I actually quite like it,” said Neville. “I’m not saying they’ve been brilliant together, but the pair of them are a threat. The centre backs for Villa will know they’ve been in a game.”
“It’s not the type of partner that you’d ordinarily see with Kane, I wondered how he’d would take to it, but he’s been really good,” he added.
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