Arriving to a ticker tape welcome at White Hart Lane, Villa scored against Nottingham Forest on his debut at the City Ground. Villa scored a total of 25 goals in 179 Spurs appearances, including his winning goal against Manchester City in the 1981 FA Cup Final replay – for which he won the Wembley goal of the century award in 2001. He had also opened the scoring in the 8th minute of that final replay. He was withdrawn from the 1982 FA Cup Final Tottenham team, due to the outbreak of the Falklands Conflict.