Spurs thrash Villa to boost top-four hopes

Tottenham Hotspur hammered 10-man Aston Villa 4-0 in the Premier League on Sunday thanks to four second-half goals, allowing them to close the gap with their Birmingham rivals to two points in the chase for Champions League football next season.

Villa’s decision to start with a five-man backline cost them dearly in the second half as they conceded four times, with John McGinn getting sent off for a violent tackle that will likely incur a three-match ban.

Starting the day fourth, five points ahead of their fifth-placed visitors, Villa struggled from the off as Spurs pressed them high up the pitch and forced them to turn over the ball.

Villa had an appeal for a penalty turned down in the 34th minute as Leon Bailey went tumbling under an innocuous challenge from Yves Bissouma, and their only promising chance of the first half came in stoppage time as Lucas Digne sent a looping header just wide from a well-worked corner.

Spurs struck twice early in the second half with James Maddison volleying the opener in the 50th minute and Son Heung-min setting up Brennan Johnson to net the second three minutes later after Villa gave the ball away cheaply.

Any chance the home side had of staging a comeback all but disappeared when McGinn was shown a straight red card in the 65th minute for clattering Spurs defender Destiny Udogie.

With Villa on the ropes, Spurs captain Son swept home the third a minute into stoppage time, and he notched his second assist of the afternoon by setting up substitute Timo Werner to score three minutes later.

The 4-0 victory moves Spurs to 53 points, two behind Villa with the London side also having a game in hand and a better goal difference.

Tottenham manger Ange Postecoglou was in ebullient mood after his side’s superb second-half showing.

“Get excited, why not? The supporters, if they don’t get excited by a performance and result like that, in what was a significant game…you’ve got to enjoy that,” he told Sky Sports.

Villa boss Unai Emery was sanguine after his side’s second-half collapse.

“We have to accept that we were facing a Tottenham who are contenders to finish in the top four, like us,” he told the BBC.

“We have to be consistent, we needed more. Of course we are still fourth but today we lost a very good opportunity.”