Aston Villa player ratings after disgraceful performance in defeat against Tottenham Hotspur

Villa showed no intention of getting anything against Spurs and the performance they served up was an embarrassment for the ages

Are Aston Villa fighting for a Champions League place, still? Through the Premier League? Somebody should tell them.

Villa took a mid-season trip to the beach despite having achieved exactly nothing already, actively throwing away a chance to pick up three of the four points needed to secure Champions League qualification.

Unai Emery made seven changes, five by choice, after last Thursday’s Europa League loss at Nottingham Forest and his team reflected his lack of respect for the fixture.

This was not a dead rubber. This was not unimportant. This was a miscalculation that could easily kill the season.

Let’s be absolutely clear about this: Villa decided they didn’t have to take seriously a match they needed to win, tossed it off, and paid the price. They’re not done paying yet either.

This was embarrassing; a shambles from the first minute to the last. It was Villa’s worst performance for years and it’s made all the worse by the rather obvious fact that they didn’t have much appetite to fix it.

Feeling good for Thursday, lads? Nice and rested and ready to go?

Here are the ratings:

Emiliano Martínez - 5

Messed up his first pass out, resulting in a Spurs corner, but soon settled. Made important saves to keep out João Palhinha and Randal Kolo Muani at 1-0.

Matty Cash - 3

Willing to scrap but Mathys Tel caused him problems from the word go. It probably wasn’t all his fault but turning inside to pass to his centre-back was unhelpful. Passing forward was speculative and it showed. Decent assist for the most pointless goal of the season.

Victor Lindelöf - 3

Like Cash, it’s difficult to know how much of the blame Lindelöf has to wear for his individual performance but there’s no argument that can be made that he stood out in an atrocious display.

Tyrone Mings - 3

Tidy defending on the cover early on and was busier than most centre-backs have been against Spurs this year. Far too slow with the ball and passes going out of play didn’t help.

Ian Maatsen - 3

Did some good defending from the front early on to avoid Villa putting themselves in trouble but was invisible as the team collapsed after conceding. Far too easy to beat at left-back – sometimes embarrassingly so. Finally dug out a decent cross inside the last 20 minutes.

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Lamare Bogarde - 2

Struggled to get close to Spurs midfielders in time to affect them. Over-awed and under-prepared. Poor ball control.

Youri Tielemans - 2

Rescued his goalkeeper in the second minute and then disappeared until he popped up to take a corner on the hour.

Ross Barkley - 3

Joined Tammy Abraham in Villa’s 4-4-2 out of possession. Made a couple of nice flicks in midfield to try and connect the play but couldn’t get into the game. Yellow carded for a foul on Conor Gallagher.

Jadon Sancho - 2

Didn’t look sharp at all on the right and was little more than a body in support of Cash. Dreadful in the final third. Not much better in the other two.

Morgan Rogers - 3

Started poorly, giving away possession and miscontrolling the ball. Got away with a few touches in the first half that should have resulted in Spurs possession. Over-did it when he finally got a chance to shoot and waited until he got tackled. Started to liven up in the second half but still had nothing but an awful final ball to show for it.

Tammy Abraham - 3

Barely got a kick and the quality wasn’t there when he did. Started the second half by winning a corner all on his own, from which Villa managed to manufacture an immediate offside. Took a knock and was the first player substituted.

Substitutes

Ollie Watkins (for Abraham, 60) - No pressure, Ollie. No impact either. 3

Emi Buendía (for Barkley, 85) - Late substitute. N/A

Leon Bailey (for Sancho, 85) - Late substitute. N/A