Roberto Soldado grabs a goal and assist as Tottenham bounce back from the Gameweek 7 home defeat by West Ham. Man-of-the-moment Andros Townsend opens his league account for the season in a match that sees Andre Villas-Boas ring the changes and Christian Benteke return from injury for Villa:

Soldado Starting to Click
Dropped for Jermain Defoe last time around, the Spaniard was one of four changes made by his manager for yesterday’s trip to the midlands. Soldado responded with a goal and assist in the 2-0 win and also picked up the maximum bonus points in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) for his endeavours – finally finding the net from open play for the first time this term. Perhaps surprisingly, Soldado is now up to fifth in the forward standings in FPL – having played a part in five of his side’s eight goals this term, the former Valencia man has still made a key contribution. Now down to 9.2 in FPL, Soldado’s ownership stands at just 10% after an exodus picked up pace over the last few weeks but with confidence improving, he’ll likely return to Fantasy radar ahead of home games against Hull and Newcastle in the next three.

Townsend Off the Mark
Yesterday’s game was the seventh straight start for the winger as he continues to stave off the competition on the Tottenham right. Townsend had mustered just one assist in his previous six and with Aaron Lennon fit again, there was some concern that Townsend was under renewed pressure – Villas-Boas’ faith in the youngster was rewarded with his first strike of the season as Townsend brought his England form to the table at Villa Park.

Encouragingly for the 5.6 priced midfielder, he clearly seems to have his manager’s backing at a time whether Villas-Boas demonstrated his ruthlessness by axing both Mousa Dembele and Christian Eriksen from the XI. Dembele was dropped for the first time this season, whilst Eriksen’s omission ended a run of four starts since he made his debut in Gameweek 4 – Paulinho is now the only player to have started all eight games in a midfield that is becoming increasingly difficult to predict, though there is a suggestion that the Dane’s non-appearance was mainly down to his international game time over the past week.

After the game, Villas-Boas reserved praise for Townsend’s performance:

“I think he’s done what he has been doing excellently. He takes the team forward, and he has the ability to drive and jump the man whenever he has the ball. He is always a threat and teams have started to be more aware of his strengths. He started not really well, but improved during the game.”

Spurs’ Resilience Rediscovered
It’s five clean sheets in eight now as Tottenham returned to the form that had previously seen them concede just three goals in the first six Gameweeks. With Danny Rose still injured, Villas-Boas shifted Jan Vertonghen to left-back and dropped Kyle Naughton – this allowed Vlad Chiriches his first league start, with the Romanian slotting in alongside Michael Dawson in the heart of the back-four. Whilst Vertonghen’s owners will be satisfied with another six points, yesterday was, intriguingly, the first time he has failed to pick up bonus points when Spurs have delivered a clean sheet – his move to the flank proved detrimental, with Dawson and Chiriches earning an extra point apiece instead.

Bearing in mind Villas-Boas reported last Friday that he expects Rose back in training within a week, the battle for places at the back is likely to intensify. Certainly, a return for Rose would allow Vertonghen to shift back into the centre but with the Belgian the only nailed-on defender through the middle, Chiriches could be set to push Dawson all the way for the remaining berth.

Benteke Back from Injury
Despite numerous reports indicating he was set to start against Tottenham, Christian Benteke was deemed fit enough only for the Villa bench for yesterday’s encounter. Handed the final 30 minutes as a replacement for Libor Kozak, he was unable to make the difference for the home side as Villa failed to score for the second match in a row. Having slipped to 8.8 in FPL, Benteke is now owned by less than 12% of Fantasy managers but his return from injury bodes well ahead of a favourable run of fixtures which see the midlands side play host to Everton, Cardiff and Sunderland in the next five, with trips to West Ham and West Brom also on the cards.

After the game, Paul Lambert explained his decision to introduce his start striker from the bench as he looks to build up his match-fitness:

“Christian has trained four days in month. It’s unfair on him to expect him to right in from the beginning. He has only trained a couple of days with us and the same with Belgium. It was not enough to throw him into that magnitude of game. Plus I am happy with Libor. It was never an option. But he got half-an-hour and it will do him the world of good.”