One clock stopped, another ticks on and the question of time is beginning to weigh heavily over the head of Roberto De Zerbi. More precisely, how much embarrassment must Tottenham sustain before his position comes under serious review?

After five games of the campaign, they have no wins, two points and a side that fluctuates in its desire to be either a punchbag or a punchline. Here, against an Aston Villa team with many of the same needs and problems, they submitted themselves to being both.

It was a humiliation that throws sharp focus, once again, on the £320million of summer spending that has somehow left Spurs looking cheap and tacky.

For that, De Zerbi will need to offer better answers than a discussion about incremental progress, which in this case meant scoring not only one goal but two. Times of plenty indeed.

But there’s an obvious issue with getting two when the other guys have three. And there’s a bigger one when each of those goals, finished by Conor Gallagher and Jan Paul van Hecke, arrived at 3-0 down. In other words, Spurs clocked on when Villa had their first win of the season in the bag.

Credit to Villa for that. They rode an early storm in London, as did Everton at the same ground last week, and in that period Tottenham looked good. Savio, especially. But he faded against Everton and Villa inspired the same withdrawal, because that is what happens with Tottenham – when the going gets tough, or a little frustrating, they shrink. De Zerbi’s clever patterns become charges into blind alleys.

That was shown up against Unai Emery, who read this match so well and turned it by little and large degrees. For one, see how he introduced Matty Cash for Aaron Wan-Bissaka at half-time and in a masterstroke killed the strong momentum Tottenham had built on the left.

This win was a vindication for the Spaniard, who has faced questions of his own about a slow start and a redesigned squad. His international break will spent in a state of far greater comfort.

For De Zerbi, much thinking lies ahead, especially as this was close to his strongest side, evidenced by making only one change to the XI held by Everton, with Pedro Porro brought in for Archie Gray.

If the lack of De Zerbi’s usual tinkering signified some level of clarity in his mind, then it was soon replaced by the usual anxieties – Porro lasted only 17 minutes before succumbing to injurt. On went Gray.

With his first contribution, he dragged a shot a fraction wide, but this was a purple patch for Spurs. In that first half, they were quick, clean and threatening. Omar Marmoush was dangerous on the left, Savio offered greater signs of an end-product on the right, and Dominic Solanke was demonstrating a level of understanding with both.

Naturally it came to nothing. Savio forced a couple of good saves from Zion Suzuki, but no breakthrough was forthcoming and this fell at a point when De Zerbi’s defence were becoming a concern. As individual components, that back four is solid, but Sandro Tonali and Rodrigo Bentancur offer a thin shield.

Villa’s threat was initially limited but they had spaces to exploit and areas to target. Nicolas Jackson helped stretch those lines by keeping to an advanced position and into the voids fell chances for Emiliano Buendia and Johan Manzambi, who each drew decent saves from Antonin Kinsky.

Those were the warnings before the goal arrived with two elements of good fortune in the same attack.

The first came when Andy Robertson made a well-intentioned lunge to prevent a corner but succeeded only in redirecting play to John McGinn. The latter’s subsequent pass then introduced the second stroke of luck when Boubacar Kamara’s scuffed his shot directly to Manzambi for the finish. Given it was his first start after a £50m move, the Swiss has already made more of an impact than most Tottenham imports beyond Van Hecke.

Clearly, the goal was a gut punch for De Zerbi and his response was to hook off Mateus Fernandes for Mohammed Kudus at the break. For his part, Emery sent on Cash for Wan-Bissaka, who appears no closer to grasping the complex requirements of his manager.

Emery has those quirks, which extended here to a running battle with the fourth official about the boundaries of his technical area, but there is no doubting the wisdom in his madness. Cash’s handling of Marmoush was far sharper and so too his control of Savio when Marmoush took a more central role.

For De Zerbi, the pursuit was exasperating and made worse when the VAR correctly disallowed Kudus’s strike after spotting that Robertson was a nose offside behind McGinn. In rolling the dice on one that might count, the Spurs coach then sent on James Maddison but within a minute it was 2-0.

The goal was an embarrassment in stages, with Van Hecke losing out to Jackson under a punt from Suzuki, before Micky van de Ven was easily turned by the same man. Fair play to Jackson, his movement was excellent and strike well placed, but Kinsky ought to have saved. When Buendia added a third with a beauty from outside the area, Kinsky could at least be spared any blame.

Tottenham did get their goal, and indeed a second in stoppage time, but by then the game was gone. Time was up. Assuming De Zerbi is given more to play with, he has a lot to think about.