Villa Torn Apart After Feeble Spurs Capitulation: 'Cheating the Paying Public'

Aston Villa have endured a torrid seven days. First came a 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest in the Europa League semi-final's opening leg, then a 2-1 hammering at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur—a result that prompted manager Unai Emery to field a heavily rotated side with the return fixture at Villa Park looming on Thursday and Champions League football already effectively secured.

It was a tactical gamble that backfired spectacularly, and one that has now drawn the ire of former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan, who has spared absolutely no punches in his assessment of Villa's showing.

Emery attempted to justify his selection choices in the aftermath, telling reporters: "I have been here for three and a half years now and I don't forget how we have done everything. Some of these players were winning several matches in a row earlier in the season. Now we have 58 points after 35 games of the season. I am so proud of the players. I am not linking the changes in the team to the results.

"We also lost at Nottingham Forest and at Fulham last weekend. When we beat Sunderland here I also made changes, but because we won, nobody said anything. We lost here because Tottenham played better than us. We must be realistic about everything. I don't change my mind or my point of view."

Jordan, however, was having none of it. Speaking on talkSPORT, the pundit launched into a withering critique of Villa's capitulation, suggesting their capitulation made Spurs look like continental royalty.

"Tottenham were good, better. But the more Tottenham got into that game, the more they realised that Aston Villa were going to do absolutely bugger all," Jordan said. "Tottenham got bolder and bolder and looked better. No one's taking it away from Spurs. I'm glad they got a result.

"The fact is that Aston Villa put top players in there, not mugs. If you're an Aston Villa fan, go and watch that game, having paid a lot of money for it, despite the fact you've got a big game coming in the week, and we know that you just played, and you're going to be a bit leggy. That's why you made the changes.

"But even the manager, he looked completely nonplussed, disengaged, completely out of sorts."

Rather than question Villa's integrity, Jordan instead chose to call the display precisely what he saw: an utter shambles. "I don't think you should be questioning integrity. I think you should be calling it what it was, an absolute disgrace of a performance. Spurs must have been rubbing their hands, thinking we are never, ever going to get a better opportunity to play such a slovenly, disengaged, unmotivated, chaotic, poor side as Aston Villa."

The condemnation didn't end there. Jordan proceeded to brand it among the worst Premier League showings he'd witnessed in years, drawing unflattering comparisons to some of the division's most notorious collapses.

"That is as bad a Premier League performance as I think I have ever seen, even watching Derby and watching Wolves. They were so disconnected, so disengaged, so disinterested, so under-aroused that it made Spurs look like PSG," he declared.

Most damning of all, Jordan went further still, suggesting the Villa squad had effectively robbed their own supporters of a professional afternoon's work. "Look at the players that were in that team. Look at the noise and the experience around. We had to listen to Tyrone Mings over the years about what he thinks he's entitled to. That performance in that side was abject.

"Tielemans was abject, Ross Barkley was a mile off. Tammy Abraham didn't lift a leg. They were shocking. They're just cheats. They cheated the paying public out of a performance."