Ben Davies, centre, is congratulated by Tottenham teammates after scoring the opening goal against Aston Villa in the FA Cup third round. Toby Melville / Reuters
Ben Davies, centre, is congratulated by Tottenham teammates after scoring the opening goal against Aston Villa in the FA Cup third round. Toby Melville / Reuters

Tottenham maintain unbeaten home record with deserved FA Cup win over Aston Villa



FA Cup third round:

Tottenham Hotspur 2 Aston Villa 0

Tottenham: Davies (71'), Son (80')

Man of the match: Harry Winks (Tottenham Hotspur)

Two headers from Dele Alli put Chelsea to the sword at White Hart Lane on Wednesday, securing one of Tottenham Hotspur’s best results since Mauricio Pochettino took charge in the summer of 2014.

Four days later, it was another headed goal — this time from left wing-back Ben Davies — that set Tottenham on their way against a resilient Aston Villa side in the third round of the FA Cup.

Pochettino stuck with the 3-4-3 formation that enabled his side’s success against the Premier League leaders earlier this week, although the personnel was vastly different this time. Only Toby Alderweireld and Eric Dier kept their places in the hosts’ starting XI, with Harry Winks, Vincent Janssen and Cameron Carter-Vickers among the fringe players afforded an opportunity from the first whistle.

The game started slowly, Tottenham enjoying plenty of early possession but struggling to do much with it, while Villa seemed content to absorb pressure and hit their opponents on the counter-attack without actually committing many men forward when control of the ball changed sides.

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Read more

■ Greg Lea: Tottenham would welcome Wembley trip for FA Cup final

■ Richard Jolly: On Plymouth's heroic draw at Liverpool

■ FA Cup round-up: Terry sees red in comfortable Chelsea win

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Moussa Sissoko had a couple of bright moments, the Frenchman showcasing his power with one lung-busting run through the centre of the pitch, but Tottenham struggled to ask questions of the visitors’ backline. Janssen was marshalled well but gave the ball away too often, with the Netherlands international visibly frustrated after one particularly untidy touch.

The first shot of the match did not arrive until the 29th minute, when Leandro Bacuna’s effort from 25 yards was comfortably held by Michel Vorm. A period of sustained Villa pressure followed, but the visitors were unable to sufficiently trouble Tottenham’s stand-in goalkeeper. James Chester miscued a header from Jack Grealish’s free-kick, before Grealish gave the Premier League side the opportunity to regroup by blazing a long-range strike high over the bar.

Generally, it was a half of few chances, but things did improve after the break. Janssen tried his luck from outside the box after a neat one-two with Son Heung-min just 60 seconds after the restart, while a terrific run from Winks shifted the home supporters to the edge of their seats for the first time since the opening exchanges.

The introduction of Alli, scorer of seven goals in his last four appearances, was a further source of excitement on the hour, but it was Son who went closest to opening the scoring with a fierce shot that required an intervention from Sam Johnstone, the on-loan Manchester United goalkeeper making his Villa debut.

Steve Bruce’s men remained dogged and disciplined for the most part, but their resistance was finally broken when Davies nodded Georges-Kevin Nkoudou cross into the bottom corner in the 71st minute.

Villa were unable to regain their confidence thereafter, and Tottenham duly doubled their lead soon after. An excellent team move eventually led to Kieran Trippier feeding a pass into the path of Sissoko, who did well to get his head up and pick out Son in the centre. The South Korean made no mistake after intelligently losing his marker, steering the ball home to book Tottenham’s place in the fourth round of a competition they have won eight times in their history.

It was another deserved victory for Pochettino’s men, who have still not lost at White Hart Lane this season.

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Our legal advisor

Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.

Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation. 

Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.

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The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

The Buckingham Murders

Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu

Director: Hansal Mehta

Rating: 4 / 5

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Match info

Manchester United 0-0 Crystal Palace

Man of the match: Cheikhou Kouyate (Crystal Palace)

MATCH INFO

Watford 1 (Deulofeu 80' p)

Chelsea 2 (Abraham 5', Pulisic 55')

Skewed figures

In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458. 

Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
  1. Join parent networks
  2. Look beyond school fees
  3. Keep an open mind

Abdul Jabar Qahraman was meeting supporters in his campaign office in the southern Afghan province of Helmand when a bomb hidden under a sofa exploded on Wednesday.

The blast in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah killed the Afghan election candidate and at least another three people, Interior Minister Wais Ahmad Barmak told reporters. Another three were wounded, while three suspects were detained, he said.

The Taliban – which controls much of Helmand and has vowed to disrupt the October 20 parliamentary elections – claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mr Qahraman was at least the 10th candidate killed so far during the campaign season, and the second from Lashkar Gah this month. Another candidate, Saleh Mohammad Asikzai, was among eight people killed in a suicide attack last week. Most of the slain candidates were murdered in targeted assassinations, including Avtar Singh Khalsa, the first Afghan Sikh to run for the lower house of the parliament.

The same week the Taliban warned candidates to withdraw from the elections. On Wednesday the group issued fresh warnings, calling on educational workers to stop schools from being used as polling centres.

Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

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Notable groups (UAE time)

Jordan Spieth, Si Woo Kim, Henrik Stenson (12.47pm)

Justin Thomas, Justin Rose, Louis Oosthuizen (12.58pm)

Hideki Matsuyama, Brooks Koepka, Tommy Fleetwood (1.09pm)

Sergio Garcia, Jason Day, Zach Johnson (4.04pm)

Rickie Fowler, Paul Casey, Adam Scott (4.26pm)

Dustin Johnson, Charl Schwartzel, Rory McIlroy (5.48pm)

UAE squad

Ali Kashief, Salem Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdelrahman, Mohammed Al Attas (Al Jazira), Mohmmed Al Shamsi, Hamdan Al Kamali, Mohammad Barghash, Khalil Al Hammadi (Al Wahda), Khalid Eisa, Mohammed Shakir, Ahmed Barman, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Adel Al Hosani, Al Hassan Saleh, Majid Suroor (Sharjah), Waleed Abbas, Ismail Al Hammadi, Ahmed Khalil (Shabab Al Ahli Dubai) Habib Fardan, Tariq Ahmed, Mohammed Al Akbari (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmeen (Al Wasl), Hassan Al Mahrami (Baniyas)

UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions