Tottenham Hotspur moved two points behind Aston Villa with a 4-0 win over their top-four rivals at Villa Park.
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James Maddison and Brennan Johnson scored second-half goals before John McGinn was given a straight red card for a dangerous challenge on Destiny Udogie.
Son Heung-min and Timo Werner rubbed salt into Villa's wounds with stoppage-time goals to put Spurs in pole position for a fourth-placed finish, given they have a match in hand over their beaten opponents, who will be without star midfielder McGinn for their next three fixtures. Spurs also now have a better goal difference than Villa.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 |
Aston Villa
AVL
|
38 | +15 | 68 |
| 5 |
Spurs
TOT
|
38 | +13 | 66 |
| 6 |
Chelsea
CHE
|
38 | +14 | 63 |
How the match unfolded
Aston Villa started with a back five just three days after resting a number of players in their UEFA Europa Conference League last-16 trip to Ajax. Lucas Digne replaced Alex Moreno at left-back, while Jacob Ramsey missed out through injury.
For Spurs, Pedro Porro returned from injury to start for the first time in a month, while Johnson was favoured to Werner after setting up two goals as a substitute in the 3-1 turnaround win over Crystal Palace last weekend. The only other change was Pape Sarr replacing Rodrigo Bentancur in midfield.
Spurs made the better start, having over 70 per cent of the ball in the opening stages. But they couldn't convert possession into chances, ending the first half with only one shot, a miscued effort from a crossing position by Johnson.
Indeed it was Villa, playing on the counter-attack, who looked more likely to break the deadlock. They had five first-half shots and also failed to make the most of a number of promising situations against Spurs' high line.
Digne headed a half-chance wide but perhaps their best opportunity of the first half was when Douglas Luiz delayed a through-ball to Ollie Watkins, resulting in the striker being flagged offside.
Just five minutes after the restart, Spurs broke the deadlock. Sarr beat the offside trap, ran down the right wing and delivered an incredible driven cross to Maddison, who poked in his first Premier League goal since October.
It extended Spurs' run of scoring to 39 consecutive Premier League matches, which was already a club record.
Just three minutes later it was 2-0. Ezri Konsa played a poor pass across goal to Youri Tielemans, who was beaten to the ball by Dejan Kulusevski. The Swede passed to Son and with a 3 v 1 in Spurs' favour, Son played in Johnson to lift into the roof of the net. Johnson has now scored or assisted in three of Spurs' last four matches.
In the 65th minute, Villa's task to mount a comeback got even tougher as McGinn was shown a straight red card for a reckless challenge on Udogie. McGinn will now miss Villa's next three matches, against West Ham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Manchester City.
Spurs slowed the match down after McGinn's dismissal but made it 3-0 in the first minute of stoppage time. Kulusevski broke free and pulled the ball back to Son, who smashed in his 14th Premier League goal of the season and his sixth in four appearances at Villa Park in his career.
Son then turned provider to cross for substitute Werner to score in consecutive matches and inflict on Villa their joint-heaviest defeat of the season, and give Spurs their biggest win in the Premier League since January 2023.
The only sour note for Spurs was losing centre-back Micky van de Ven to an apparent hamstring injury.
Ange’s latest on Micky van de Ven from Villa Park
In ending Villa's run of three consecutive Premier League victories, Spurs move onto 53 points, two behind Villa and six above Manchester United, both of whom they have a match in hand over.
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Key facts
This was Unai Emery’s joint-heaviest home defeat as a manager, with the 0-4 scoreline in charge of Aston Villa equalling a 5-1 loss against Dinamo Moscow in the Russian Premier League in November 2012 while in charge of Spartak Moscow. Emery also suffered his first Premier League defeat against Spurs, having been unbeaten across his first six against them in the competition (W4 D2), and winning his first three while in charge of current club Aston Villa.
This was Spurs’ first away win against a team starting the day above them in the Premier League table since February 2022 (3-2 v Man City), while they’re unbeaten in their five games against sides above them in the table under Ange Postecoglou (W3 D2).
Each of the last six instances of a Spurs player being directly involved in 3+ goals in a Premier League game have been by Son Heung-min, with two of the games in this run being away to Aston Villa (one goal and two assists today and a hat-trick in April 2022).
John McGinn was sent off for the first time in his Aston Villa career, with today being his 224th appearance for the club across all competitions.
