Tottenham Hotspur find themselves at the foot of the Premier League table after five matches, and the manner of their 3-0 defeat to Aston Villa at the weekend offered a damning explanation for why.

Unai Emery had arrived at the match having identified Tottenham's midfield — the centrepiece of the club's £300 million summer outlay — as their most exploitable weakness. His tactical blueprint tore that midfield apart from the first whistle.

A free-flowing Villa dismantle Spurs in the middle

Emery's approach was notably unorthodox. He dispensed with his usual wide, pacy winger on one flank and instead deployed Emiliano Buendia and John McGinn inverting from the wings, with Johan Manzambi operating in a deep, free role nominally as the ten.

The tactic caused Tottenham problems from the outset. Manzambi ghosted into the box to open the scoring, and the pattern only intensified in the second half, with Villa repeatedly walking through the centre of the pitch with ease.

The move that captured the afternoon most sharply was Buendia's winning goal — the product of a nine-pass, 31-second sequence that cut open Spurs' midfield three separate times before Buendia finished in open space. The combination between Manzambi and Nicolas Jackson in the build-up to the latter's goal was equally telling: two new Villa signings flourishing precisely where two new Tottenham signings were failing.

What makes this most damaging for Roberto De Zerbi and Tottenham is not simply that the midfield press unravelled — it is that Emery anticipated it would. He built his entire game plan around that expectation, and it delivered comprehensively.

De Zerbi's man-to-man pressing system may yet improve with time on the training ground, but time and patience are already in short supply for a Spurs side sitting bottom of the table.

Alonso caught out as Brentford dismantle Chelsea

The weekend's other notable tactical story came at Brentford, where a 3-0 victory over Chelsea raised pointed questions about Xabi Alonso's preparation.

Brentford were exactly what they always are at home — organised, relentless, and physically dominant. Their man-to-man press forced Chelsea into a series of patterns that suited the hosts perfectly, and they capitalised through set-pieces for the first and third goals and a counter-attack for the second.

Alonso's most scrutinised decision was his choice of midfield pairing. Fielding Jordan Henderson and Valentin Barco — two players making their full Premier League debuts, one a newcomer to the country and one a veteran ill-suited to resisting high-pressure football — against Brentford's midfield was a considerable gamble that did not pay off.

A repeated pattern saw Chelsea's defenders stranded in possession with no reliable passing options. Henderson, in one key moment, collected the ball with no forward outlet and played an ambitious pass that was intercepted, directly leading to Brentford's second goal.

Malo Gusto and Romeo Lavia, both named on the bench, would have offered more against this specific challenge. More broadly, Alonso's 3-4-2-1 formation has become straightforward to read and prepare for — Chelsea generated 28 crosses on the day, each one repelled with little difficulty.

For Chelsea to contend for silverware, Alonso will need to demonstrate a far greater capacity for tactical adaptation — and he will need to do so quickly.