Tottenham player with horrific stats vs Villa is surely now finished under De Zerbi

Archie Gray was appalling off the bench as Tottenham Hotspur were beaten 3-2 by Aston Villa on Saturday.

The 20-year-old came off the bench for the injured Pedro Porro, but struggled to have any impact on the game.

The Lilywhites would break their goal drought through Conor Gallagher and Jan Paul van Hecke late on, but goals from Johan Manzambi, Nicolas Jackson and Emiliano Buendia had already put the game out of reach.

Tottenham now sit 18th and are still yet to win a Premier League game this season, losing three of their opening five despite spending over £400million in the summer.

That level of investment also called for departures, and the Lilywhites allowed Djed Spence to join Inter Milan in a deal worth around £25m.

But the England international has not been replaced, forcing Roberto De Zerbi to play Gray at right-back in the absence of Porro.

Stats must bring Archie Gray experiment to an end

There is sympathy towards Gray - he is simply not a right-back, and had impressed massively in midfield in pre-season.

But there is growing frustration over his string of consistently poor performances on the right side of the defence.

Unfortunately for Tottenham fans, many of them knew exactly what was coming when Porro went down and was unable to continue.

Gray came on and immediately had a huge chance, with Zion Suzuki making a good save to deny him inside the box.

But there was little to be pleased about after that. The England youth international had just one touch in the opposition box, and gave the ball away three times.

There were problems defensively, too. Gray was dribbled past twice -nobody was dribbled past more - and he won just three of seven contested ground duels.

The 20-year-old also committed a foul and completed none of his attempted long balls, in what was not a good afternoon for him.

What is Roberto De Zerbi's solution?

Unfortunately for De Zerbi, it is not obvious who should be the man to come in for Gray, should Porro be out for an extended period of time.

Both Destiny Udogie and Andy Robertson have little to no experience playing on the right of the defence, and the same can be said of the remainder of the squad.

In fact, the most logical solution likely comes in form of Van Hecke. The Netherlands International is right-footed, technically proficient and reasonably quick.

De Zerbi has been let down by Tottenham's summer recruitment, but he must quickly find an answer.