Aston Villa 1 Tottenham 2
It had all looked so promising for Aston Villa after Andreas Weimann had scored their first goal in over nine hours and with Christian Benteke seemingly getting back to the fearsome form he had shown prior to his prolonged injury layoff, but they succumbed to a late one-two sucker punch against Spurs to leave empty handed.
Spurs started the brighter, Roberto Soldado missing two presentable chances early on before Villa gained a foothold in the match. As their possession grew, they were unlucky to not go ahead as Benteke contrived to hit the frame of the goal.
Minutes later they did take the lead , however, as Weimann swept in Charles N'Zogbia's cross with 16 minutes showing on the clock.
The game changing moment came when Benteke was sent off twenty minutes into the second period for his reaction to an incident involving Ryan Mason, the Belgian seeming to put his hand in the Spurs' player's face. It gave renewed hope of salvaging something from the game for the London club but as the clock ticked on, many in the ground began to wonder if Spurs could make the extra man work in their favour. Finally, with only six minutes to go they drew level as an Erik Lamela corner found Nacer Chadli to head in. Sensing the game was theirs for the taking, they snatched all three points in the last minute (although there were seven minutes injury time), when super sub Harry Kane continued his fine goalscoring form to convert a free-kick that deflected off Nathan Baker.
The unlucky Villa player turned to see his keeper Brad Guzan completely wrong footed and as a result the ball gently looped into the net.
The winning goal gave the rising England under-21 star his ninth of the season in all competitions and condemned the home team to their sixth defeat in a row, in what has been a miserable run of form.
Benteke's return to the team will have to go back on hold pending his likely suspension to come.
Spurs' win moves them up to a respectable eighth place in the table, only three points off the Champions League places in what is shaping up to be a keen battle behind Chelsea, Manchester City and surprise package Southampton in second place.
Villa by contrast are precariously only three places and two points above the bottom three and need results to pick up sooner rather than later, to avoid concerns about being pulled into a relegation battle as the season progresses.
