Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou struggled to fault his players despite picking up their 21st loss of the campaign at Aston Villa.
Spurs held the hosts at bay for the best part of 60 minutes, but were undone by goals from Ezri Konsa and Boubacar Kamara in the second half.
It was a heavily rotated squad ahead of the Europa League final next week, but there was still some risk with the likes of Heung-Min Son and Pape Matar Sarr playing, and the former coming off with a knock.
Speaking after the game, Postecoglou gave an update on his players.
He said: “He [Pape Sarr] felt something in his back and took him off as a precaution. Not too significant and Mikey was OK but was just fatigued.
“He [Son Heung-min] is ready and available. They all are ready to start. It was important tonight and he feels like he is getting back to some rhythm.
Ange on Aston Villa defeat and building towards Bilbao 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/vkOmjVZMGq
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) May 16, 2025
“I thought up until they scored the boys worked hard, they were really disciplined and organised. We didn’t really let them create too many openings. We had our moments as well going forward but once they scored we lost a little bit of belief.
“A lot of those guys haven’t played a lot and we looked like we were fatiguing and then the game just got away from us.”
The game was initially set to take place over the weekend, but it was moved to the same time as Manchester United’s trip to Chelsea – where they lost 1-0 – to accommodate recovery time for the final.
Spurs will now very quickly move on and set their sights on silverware in Spain.
