English FA Premiership/ Tottenham 5 Aston Villa 1: Tottenham boosted their European hopes with a resounding victory which all but ended Aston Villa's chances of qualifying for the Uefa Cup.
The win lifted Spurs into seventh place on goal difference but the sternest test of their resolve will be Saturday's trip to Middlesbrough, the team just below them.
For Villa, who had arrived on a five-match unbeaten run, the frustration of defeat was compounded by its origins. There is much talk of marginals at present and it was on a marginal decision that this match swung.
It was a refereeing call which cost Villa the game after only five minutes. Mark Delaney had surged into Tottenham's area only to tangle with Erik Edman. With the entire stadium expecting a penalty - the Spurs bench excepted - the referee Mark Clattenburg waved away the appeals.
Paul Robinson, alert while Villa were addled, immediately launched a 60-yard pass to Frederic Kanoute, who outmuscled Liam Ridgewell before sweeping his shot home from the edge of the area.
The Villa dugout was dismayed. Roy Aitken and David O'Leary's reactions did nothing other than to dispirit their players. Chins slumped into claret-and-blue chests while Spurs were spurred.
When questioned about Clattenburg, the referee who had disallowed Pedro Mendes' perfectly good goal for Spurs against Manchester United at Old Trafford this season, O'Leary refrained from dark mutterings of conspiracy. "If ever a penalty was a penalty that one is," he said. "I don't know if it changed the game but what I can categorically say is they wouldn't have gone on and scored at the other end."
Though he churned out the inevitable pity-me pleas about the relative resources of Villa and Tottenham, O'Leary showed sufficient generosity to admit his side's failings in this game were ultimately their own. The lead was doubled and then trebled within the next 20 minutes by openings created by poor defending and Villa's inability to clear from set plays cost dearly.
Ridgewell, out of place in a game of this magnitude, merely laid on the ball for Ledley King when trying to tackle Sean Davis in the box, the defender finding the net from six yards out for the home side's second.
Then Spurs appeared set to be awarded a penalty when Juan Pablo Angel tripped Robbie Keane. Instead Clattenburg was spared the decision as the ball squirted to Kanoute, always a threat and willingly creative for his team-mates, who arced a shot into the top corner eight yards out from the byline.
Michael Dawson was harshly judged to have handled Angel's shot on the stroke of half-time, providing Villa belatedly with the penalty they craved and, through Gareth Barry's conversion, a way back into the game.
But if they have dropped out of the race for European qualification it is because they were guilty of dropping off Andy Reid. Pace is not one of the young Irishman's attributes but the visiting defence parted for him to advance to 22 yards out before unleashing a thunderous drive which flew in off the underside of the bar.
A late injury to Robinson might have hampered Spurs' chances in the match against Middlesbrough but Jol confirmed that his goalkeeper was suffering only from a dead leg.
"I think that was one of the best performances of the season," said the manager. "But it is a complicated situation for the seventh spot. Middlesbrough have also to play Manchester City so it might go up to the last game. But we have hopefully got rid of Villa with this result."
Guardian Service
