‘We want to finish higher than them’ – Vilahamn previews Spurs’ fixture at Aston Villa | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur head coach Robert Vilahamn says that this weekend’s opponents Aston Villa are a team that the club want to rank higher than in the Barclays Women’s Super League table.

Both sides have invested heavily in their playing squads in recent times. Spurs and Aston Villa went into the campaign with high aspirations and both performed well on opening day.

The pair will now play out an intriguing fixture at Villa Park on Sunday. When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Spurs boss Vilahamn said that Aston Villa are a side that his team want to beat in terms of league ranking this season.

“Before last season, Aston Villa were in fifth place and we wanted to beat them and be in the top half of the table and we did that,” Vilahamn said. “We beat them quite early [in the season] too.

“This year, they have invested a lot, they have a new coach and they had a good performance against Chelsea but they are one of those teams that we are going to compete against. We want to finish higher than them in the table.

“It’s going to be tricky because their home stadium is a big stadium, it’s going to be a tough game. We also come with really good self-confidence, so I think we have a good chance of playing a good game.”

Aston Villa were defeated 1-0 by Barclays Women’s Super League champions Chelsea on opening day, however, the Midlands side were not disgraced. They more than matched their opponents all over the pitch. Having analysed that game, Vilahamn gave his summary on Aston Villa’s performance at Kingsmeadow.

He said “They have some really good players. They have good depth on the bench and made some changes at half-time and a few changes tactically as well which shows that they have different players that they can use in different positions. They obviously have a coach that can deal with flexibility in the tactics and they created some good chances.

“I think they competed well with Chelsea for the whole game. They showed that they have quality players, a talented coach, so it’s going to be a very tough game but we also showed that we are a good team. I feel like it’ll be a very interesting game and hopefully, we can find a way to win.”

Aston Villa will play all of their home league fixtures at Villa Park this season and Vilahamn is pleased to see the club take another step forward in growing their fanbase.

He said “If we can have more games with the best facilities, this is a good step but we also need to make sure we fill the stadiums with fans. We have to do it both ways.

“We had some good experiences at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last season with a lot of fans. We have a strategy of how we want to improve there, have more fans and more games there in the coming years. I’m very positive about that.

“It’s good for the players, for the fans, for media because when you look at the game, it’s much higher quality of the product. It’s the stage where we should be at.”

Tottenham Hotspur’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Aston Villa kicks-off at 4.30pm on Sunday afternoon.