Spurs on target after Maddison’s bullseye

Last week James Maddison enjoyed going head to head against his Tottenham teammate Micky van de Ven in a darts challenge with the elite players Michael Smith and Nathan Aspinall and the Spurs No 10 stepped up to the oche here to twist a cagey contest in their favour.

- Ben Fisher

Aston Villa       0

Tottenham      4 

Maddison 50, Johnson 53, Son 90+1, Werner 90+4

By the end, however, Spurs were able to revel in an evisceration of 10-man Aston Villa.

When the fourth offi cial, Darren Bond, indicated 10 minutes of second-half stoppage time, it spelled bad news for Villa, who had just gone 3-0 down after Son Heung-min rifl ed in Dejan Kulusevki’s cutback . Then the substitute Timo Werner completed the rout with a cute fi nish.

Villa have had few off days since Unai Emery entered the building but this, a dank day, was undoubtedly one, compounded by the captain, John McGinn, being given a straight red card for a wild challenge on Destiny Udogie midway through the second half. McGinn, at the heart of Villa’s rise into the upper echelons of the division, had been on a one-man rampage to wrestle his side back into the game but instead, hot-headed, he fl ew in on Udogie. McGinn, arguably Villa’s best player before seeing red, billed the game the biggest league game in the club’s recent history and his emotions got the better of him.

Until Maddison converted Pape Matar Sarr’s wicked cross from the right from inside the six-yard box, clinking the ball into the bottom corner with his left boot, this was a tight game with half-chances seemingly the order of the day. Lucas Digne went closest for Villa, glancing McGinn's zipped low cross wide and Matty Cash toe-poked a dribbling effort into the side netting.