Villa 0-4 Spurs | Ange’s verdict: “We were outstanding in all facets”

Perseverance was the key word from Ange Postecoglou at half-time of our fine 4-0 win at Villa Park - with the feeling that our energy and pressure would eventually grind the home side down.

That proved the case with two quickfire goals from James Maddison and Brennan Johnson, created superbly first by Pape Matar Sarr, then Deki Kulusevski and Heung-Min Son, on 50 and 53 minutes, putting us in control of this key encounter in the Premier League.

Villa were then reduced to 10 men on 65 minutes after John McGinn’s tackle on Destiny Udogie and we controlled proceedings from there, adding goals from Son and Timo Werner late on. The result moved us to within two points of Villa in fourth with a game in hand and 11 matches remaining.

Speaking to The Review Show, Ange told us: “I’m delighted, yes, the boys were outstanding today in all facets. Villa are a good side, especially here, really tough to beat. The crowd make a good atmosphere for them. I thought we handled all that really well, especially in the first half where they were going to have the energy, but I just felt, even towards the end of the first half, our continual pressing, tempo and intensity were beginning to wear on them and that was the message at half-time, perseverance, and got off to a flying start in the second half, which was great and then the quality of our football shone through.

“Our finishing was better today. It’s still an area of the park I feel we can still be more ruthless in, even today, we had more chances, but it was great to score more goals and the guys who scored the goals, they’re the ones playing in those forward areas and they work really hard on the defensive side of the game, but they are there to score and create goals and they all contributed.”