Tottenham vs Aston Villa match report: Spurs win despite spirited fight-back under the gaze of Remi Garde

Tottenham 3 Aston Villa 1

(2015 Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa used to be clubs of a similar standing, in English football’s upper middle classes. Villa finished ahead of Spurs in 2008 and 2009 and looked, back then, like the likeliest side to spring entry into the Champions League elite.

Last night, though, as Villa prepared to step into yet another new era with Remi Gare, they looked like teams moving in radically different directions: one still doing their utmost to reach the top table, and glimpsing a chance this year to make it, the other just hoping to stay in the division. If they do not play each other much over the next few years, it would not be a surprise.

This was not Spurs’ best performance of the season, but they cannot rout Manchester City every week. It was their first home win since that day, back in September, and in the type of fixture with which they have often struggled in the past. Tim Sherwood’s Villa, of course, won 1-0 here just seven months ago.

This game, though, was very different. Tottenham cruised into a 2-0 first half lead, thanks to two very preventable Villa defensive errors. They let the game drift in the second half, conceded from Jordan Ayew and were given a brief scare. But Spurs killed the game in added time with a goal of such quality Villa would simply never have been able to conceive of scoring it.

The scoreline was different but this felt very similar to Villa’s last game, their Capital One Cup defeat at Southampton on Wednesday night: Villa worked hard, although confidence was low and they made mistakes. There was a late rally and a consolation goal but it was not enough to save the game. This is a team, ultimately, who have forgotten how to win football matches and unless Remi Garde can teach them how to in the next month or so, they are in very serious trouble indeed.

If Garde had allowed himself even a flicker of optimism about his job at Villa this season – and no prior research should have permitted such a thing – it cannot have lasted more than two minutes. That was the time it took Spurs to go ahead, with a goal that summed up the gulf between the two teams, one playing with confidence, the other with none.

The ball was chipped down the Spurs’ left hand side and Villa centre-back Ciaran Clark should have been able to deal with it. But Mousa Dembele thundered pass him with a contemptuous shrug of the shoulders. Clark was left desperately grabbing Dembele’s shirt but he could not even foul him with any conviction. Dembele cut inside and smacked the ball through Brad Guzan’s legs.

Villa, to their credit, did not fold. This is a limited team but they are playing for their futures and they stayed in the game for longer than many expected.

Tottenham were superior, but it took them until almost the final move of the first half to find that extra gear to score the second goal. Much of their play had been patchy – Harry Kane had a shot deflected over, Rose missed the target from a clever corner – until it all finally clicked in added time.

As ever, it was Christian Eriksen who sparked Spurs up, sliding the ball through to Rose down the left. He whipped in a cross, where Kane challenged Clark in the air. The ball came out to Dele Alli on the edge of the box, under no real pressure, and he drove it into the far bottom corner. A second defensive error, and one that felt fatal.

Villa needed to do something different in the second half and so Kevin Macdonald threw on Rudy Gestede for Gabriel Agbonlahor, who had touched the ball eight times in the first half, twice from kick-offs. The idea made perfectly good sense. Gestede is one of the best strikers in the league when crosses go into the box, even if Villa did not always have enough to the ball to provide him with that.

Spurs were on top but looked like a team conserving their energy for future battles. Anderlecht come here in the Europa League on Thursday evening for a game Spurs must win, before Mauricio Pochettino takes his players down the Seven Sisters Road to Arsenal on Sunday afternoon. Dembele was withdrawn to a standing ovation after his second consecutive scoring performance and replaced by Ryan Mason, still on his way back after six weeks out injured.

The problem for Spurs was that they were not quite as comfortable in the lead as they thought. Villa kept attacking, and all it took was one slip and one deflection to get them back into the game. Mason, who looked rusty, lost control of the ball in midfield. It fell to Jordan Ayew, who darted infield and smacked a shot towards goal. It cannoned off Jan Vertonghen’s legs, wrong-footing Lloris, and finding the bottom corner.

Having allowed the second half to drift, Tottenham were now somehow on the ropes. Gestede was suddenly a useful weapon, and when Leandro Bacuna - who had just hit the woodwork - picked him out at the far post he had Lloris flapping, only to put his header wide.

There was a brief panic, but this is a different Spurs team now, without the mental fragility that has held them back in the past. Rather than panic, they kept their heads, and won the game with a goal of delightful quality: Eriksen to Lamela to Kane, who finished into the far top corner with the assurance of a man who, along with his team, is clicking into gear.