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Aston Villa vs Tottenham - Premier League: TV channel, team news, lineups and prediction
Fourth takes on fifth in the Premier League on Sunday
Tottenham trail Aston Villa by five points in the table
Villa won 2-1 away from home in the reverse fixture

By James Cormack
Mar 8, 2024
A decisive battle in the Premier League's top-four race arrives on Sunday as Aston Villa welcome Tottenham to Villa Park.

As it stands, just the league's top four will qualify for next season's rejigged Champions League, although it could be five by the time the season draws to a close.


These two sides occupy fourth and fifth in the table, with the victor taking a huge step towards securing fourth spot. Tottenham currently sit five points adrift of Villa, but they have played a game less.

Ange Postecoglou's side haven't exactly purred in 2024, but they responded from their 2-1 defeat at home to Wolves by coming from behind to beat Crystal Palace last weekend.

Villa, meanwhile, secured a late victory at Luton Town last time out in the Premier League and were in Conference League action in midweek, playing out a pretty drab stalemate away at Ajax in the first leg of their round of 16 tie.

Here's 90min's preview of Sunday's pivotal clash at Villa Park.

What time does Aston Villa vs Tottenham kick-off?
Location: Birmingham, England
Stadium: Villa Park
Date: Sunday 10 March
Kick-off Time: 13:00 GMT / 08:00 ET / 05:00 PT
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
VAR: Darren Bond
Aston Villa vs Tottenham H2H Record (Last Five Games)
Aston Villa: 3 wins
Tottenham: 2 wins
Draws: 0
Last meeting: Tottenham 1-2 Aston Villa (26 November 2023) - Premier League
Current Form (all competitions)
Aston Villa

Tottenham

Ajax 0-0 Aston Villa - 07/03/24

Tottenham 3-1 Crystal Palace - 03/03/24

Luton 2-3 Aston Villa - 02/03/24

Tottenham 1-2 Wolves - 17/02/24

Aston Villa 4-2 Nottingham Forest - 27/02/24

Tottenham 2-1 Brighton - 10/02/24

Fulham 1-2 Aston Villa - 17/02/24

Everton 2-2 Tottenham - 03/02/24

Aston Villa 1-2 Man Utd - 11/02/24

Tottenham 3-2 Brentford - 31/01/24

How to watch Aston Villa vs Tottenham on TV and live stream
Country

TV channel/live stream

United Kingdom

Sky Ultra HD, Sky Sports Premier League, Sky Sports Main Event

United States

Telemundo Deportes En Vivo, nbcsports.com, USA Network, Telemundo, NBC Sports App

Canada

fuboTV

HOW TO WATCH PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALL ON TV AROUND THE WORLD
Aston Villa team news
Ezri Konsa is available despite his dismissal in Amsterdam, although Emery could favour Matty Cash at right-back on Sunday with Konsa moving into a central position.

The hosts are without Jacob Ramsey, who's a recent addition to Villa's lengthy list. Ramsey joins the likes of Jhon Duran, Tyrone Mings, Emiliano Buendia, and Boubacar Kamara on the sidelines.

Leon Bailey and John McGinn are certainties to return to the starting lineup.

Aston Villa predicted lineup vs Tottenham
Villa predicted lineup vs Tottenham (4-2-2-2): Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Torres, Moreno; Luiz, Tielemans; McGinn, Rogers; Bailey, Watkins.

Tottenham team news
Kaoru Mitoma, Pedro Porro
Pedro Porro has been dealing with a muscle strain / Sebastian Frej/MB Media/GettyImages
Pedro Porro has recovered from a muscle strain in time for Sunday's game. The right-back has missed Spurs' previous two outings.

Postecoglou will certainly be without Ryan Sessegnon as well as back-up goalkeepers Fraser Forster and Alfie Whiteman. Manor Solomon is also unlikely to feature.

Richarlison is expected to recover quicker than expected from a knee issue, but he surely won't start at Villa Park.

Tottenham predicted lineup vs Aston Villa
Tottenham predicted lineup vs Villa (4-2-3-1): Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie; Bissouma, Sarr; Kulusevski, Maddison, Werner; Son.

Aston Villa vs Tottenham score prediction
The reverse fixture was pretty thrilling despite Tottenham's litany of absences, and Spurs will feel confident about their chances of securing all three points this weekend.

Villa are excellent at home, but they're dealing with several notable injuries and could be a little worse for wear having played on Thursday night.

Spurs are fresher, but we're still waiting for a statement performance from Postecoglou's side in 2024. This should be a belter with high-quality chances arriving at both ends. When it's all said and done, a sharing of the spoils wouldn't be a surprise.

Prediction: Aston Villa 2-2 Tottenham
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Eric Dier reflects on Tottenham tenure, defends Daniel Levy in interview

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TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR NEWS
Eric Dier reflects on Tottenham tenure, defends Daniel Levy in interview
By Dustin George-Miller@dustingm Mar 8, 2024, 7:16pm GMT 13 Comments / 13 New
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FC Bayern München v SS Lazio: Round of 16 Second Leg - UEFA Champions League 2023/24
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Since leaving Tottenham Hotspur for Bayern Munich in January after nearly a decade of service to the club, Eric Dier has stayed mostly quiet. That’s probably by design — it’s pretty wise to let things settle a bit after moving on from such a significant chapter in one’s career. But I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s been curious as to what Dier has to say about his time at Spurs, not to mention the way things ended.

Now we get a little insight. Dier has a long interview with Henry Winter in the Times of London today where he opens up about his decade at Spurs, the friendships he made along the way, the managers he played under, and his new phase in Munich.

Dier’s a smart and erudite guy, something Spurs fans have known for a while. He speaks eloquently about his experiences and isn’t short of opinions. He even offers a robust defense of Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy against fan criticism.

Let’s start there, because that’s both one of the pull-away quotes from his long interview, and also timely considering the fan backlash against the club over its decision to raise ticket prices by 6% next season. Dier obviously is closer to Levy than your average Tottenham fan, but his defense of the chairman is on job performance grounds and not based on character.

“Daniel’s a very strong businessman. He’s an extremely difficult man to negotiate with but he looks after the club. I just find it funny when I went to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and see ‘Levy Out’ and I’m thinking, this guy over the last ten years has built the best infrastructure in football, best training ground, best stadium — and a team during all of that time that has stayed relatively competitive, reaching the Champions League final in 2019.

“You look at some other clubs struggling now that Financial Fair Play is becoming a big thing. That’s where I have a lot of respect for Daniel. Look at Arsenal when they built their new stadium, you saw that decline of the team, there were financial constraints as they built, and only now they’re finally coming back.

“You never hear Tottenham in any of these FFP conversations. It’s baffling to me that a Tottenham fan could ever be upset with someone who looks after a club in that way.”

One would imagine this is not the most popular viewpoint with your average punter in north London at the moment, but Dier has never been one to shy away from controversy, or from saying and doing what he thinks is right. Remember the time a few years ago when he charged into the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium stands after a cup match to confront a Spurs fan who had been abusing him and his brother? Dier received a hefty fine and a 4 match suspension for doing so, and gave some additional insight about the tribunal during which he was asked, and refused, to apologize.

“I was extremely disappointed with the way the process was handled. I went to a hearing and it was a really strange experience. They start talking on behalf of the fan, saying the fan was fearing for his safety. But the fan wasn’t in this room. I said, ‘You’re speaking on his behalf!’

“I said to them if it happens again I’ll do the same thing. I was getting pressured to apologise and I said you’ve got more chance of me retiring than apologising. Gareth [Southgate] wrote a really nice letter for me, which I’m extremely grateful for. Mourinho stood up for me. I had a very clear reputation as a player and for them to come to that conclusion was disappointing.”

Dier has warm memories about his near-decade at Spurs, and the incredible teammates he had. He singles out Mousa Dembele and Jan Vertonghen as role models, not only for what they did on the pitch but how they modeled behavior and mentored him when he was still a young player finding his feet in the Premier League.

“Jan and Mousa — I get emotional talking about these guys. They mean a lot to me, those people. I was so, so, so lucky that when I went to Tottenham they were there. I was a young kid and suddenly I was making a lot of money and playing in the Premier League, playing for England, and Jan and Mousa guided me.

“They taught me accountability. They saw me acting up in some way and said, ‘What are you doing?’ Of course I did stupid things. Every 20-year-old if they start making loads of money is going do stupid things.

“I couldn’t have asked for two better people to watch how they live their lives, how they spend their money.”

It became clear pretty early on after Ange Postecoglou was appointed as head coach that Dier was not a good fit for the Aussie’s tactics. Dier spent a lot of time on the bench in the first half of this season, only starting matches due to the remarkable injury crisis that saw both Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven out of the side due to injury and suspension. Despite that and his departure in January, Dier doesn’t appear to hold any grudges or resentment towards Big Ange, but it’s clear that coming to terms with his new status at the club was difficult to adjust to.

“I’ve been extremely lucky to work with [Mauricio] Pochettino, [José] Mourinho, Conte, [Ange] Postecoglou and now [Thomas] Tuchel. Those five are in the top ten managers in the world.

“I absolutely loved working with Postecoglou for six months. I learned so much. If I were to be a manager, of all the managers that I worked with, I feel that my style will probably be most similar to Postecoglou’s. It’s just the feeling wasn’t mutual in terms of playing!

“[Staying confident about a loan] what I’m most proud [of] about myself. In November I never thought I’d be sitting in this position. In that six months at Tottenham, I trained hard every day, stayed fit. But you don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. It looks completely dark. Just to have that blind faith and just stay fit, stay healthy, stay professional — that’s what I’m most proud about.”

It’s rare when a player who has been at the club as long as Dier leaves and there appears to be something of a sigh of relief from supporters, but that’s more or less what happened with Eric’s departure to Bayern Munich. Dier’s role in the team had diminished, his performances seemed out of kilter from his teammates (something that likely had as much to do with tactics as his own ability), and rightly or wrongly fan opinion of him shifted. When the transfer finally happened, it was met with more of a collective and polite nod — an acknowledgement of his service to the club, but also an admittance that it was time to move on.

To his credit, Dier appears to understand.

“I wouldn’t say the perception of me is positive [in England]. But I don’t feel sorry for myself in the slightest. I know what I’ve done. I know what I haven’t done. No one’s more critical of me than myself.

“It is funny how, abroad, I do tend to receive that appreciation more than at home. I really feel, here in Germany, the club’s appreciation for me.”

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