Right, that’s it from me. Thanks for all your emails and tweets. Stick around on theguardian.com/football for all the reports and reaction from White Hart Lane. But from me, cheerio!
Updated
So a sliver of optimism for Remi Garde but far, far more that will concern him. Spurs almost Spursed it but they go fifth, just five points from the summit.
Peep! PEEP!! PEEEEEP!!! Full-time at White Hart Lane.
Updated
GOAL! Tottenham 3-1 Aston Villa (Kane 90+3)
Villa get caught horribly on the break. Eriksen feeds Lamela, who square to Kane, who thrashes the ball into the top corner with a superb first-time strike. That’ll be that then.
Updated
90+2 min: Alan Hutton goes into the book for a wild challenge on Mason.
Updated
90+1 min: Onomah smashes a shot in from distance but it’s a weak one.
Updated
90 min: A minimum of four added minutes to play.
89 min: Richardson blocks two Lamela efforts after a clever short corner combo with Eriksen.
88 min: Alli off, Onomah on for Spurs.
87 min: Spurs have started giving the ball away incredibly cheaply when all they need to do is take the sting out of this Villa fightback.
85 min: Blimey. Ayew cuts inside and fizzes a furious shot a couple of inches over Lloris’s bar with the goalkeeper again beaten. This is some finale from Villa, and it’s come out of nowhere.
83 min: Oh my word. Bacuna five-irons a cross into the box from deep and Lloris has a brain-freeze, charging off his line and getting nowhere near the ball. Perhaps the sight of the charging goalkeeper was enough to put Gestede off, but the striker should really have tapped his header into the open net.
82 min: Rose has picked up a knock. Ben Davies replaces him at left-back.
Updated
81 min: Lloris has to punch away an inswinging corner. Villa are pushing hard now.
Updated
GOAL! Tottenham 2-1 Aston Villa (Ayew 79)
Well, well, well. Spurs have taken their foot off the gas in the past 10 of 15 minutes and they’ve paid the price. Mason makes a mess of things inside his own half and Ayew is able to ping a shot at goal. A deflection leaves Lloris helpless, and Villa have an unexpected lifeline.
Updated
79 min: Villa hit the post! A terrific curling effort from Bacuna from the edge of the box beats Lloris but rattles back from the base of the post. Good effort.
78 min: Lamela whips a shot at goal from the edge of the box, but it’s straight at Guzan, who, like Lloris, has had a fairly quiet second half.
77 min: Villa have perhaps been the better side for the past 10 minutes or so.
74 min: Dier dallies on the ball, allowing Gil to pick his pocket on the edge of the Spurs box. He slips the ball to Gestede, whose shot is deflected away for a corner. Which comes to nothing.
73 min: Kane and Lescott challenge for a high ball with the Spurs man clattering to the ground as a result. He takes a bit of a breather but looks fine to resume.
71 min: Eriksen whips a free-kick a yard or two wide, a yard or two over, from 30-odds yards.
70 min: A bit more detail on Micah Richards’ suspension here:
Villa were given the choice over whether he missed this game or the one against Manchester City at the weekend.
69 min: Dembele off, Mason on for Spurs.
Updated
68 min: Richardson goes into the book for a crashing challenge on Lamela. The free-kick is swung straight into Guzan’s hands.
67 min: On the Villa bench, Kevin MacDonald has his head in his hands.
Updated
66 min: A deep Villa corner is nodded well wide by Clark, who was not allowed any space by Alderweireld.
65 min: A Villa substitution – Grealish (around whom the England talk is all very strange) comes off to be replaced by Gil.
64 min: “There are no easy games in the Premier League but this is as close as it gets,” says Alan Smith on Sky. And he’s not far off.
Updated
62 min: Sanchez does well to muscle Kane off the ball but his clearance is picked up by Tottenham. It’s one-way traffic at the moment, albeit traffic that’s not in much of a rush.
61 min: … Eriksen slams the set-piece into the wall.
60 min: Clark botches a clearance and then allows Kane to nick the ball off him and concedes a free-kick. The young centre-half is having a night to forget. This is dangerous …
57 min: This is a lull (but it won’t hurt you).
54 min: Richardson’s free-kick into the Spurs box is nodded away. Grealish picks up the loose ball and fires it back. It’s another scuff, though.
53 min: Lamela scoops a cross to Rose at the back post but the left-back can’t get over the ball and nods high over the bar.
Updated
51 min: Dier and Lamela combine neatly on the edge of the Villa box, but the former’s shot is somewhat scuffed. At the moment, you’d say there’s absolutely no way Villa will get back into this. The gulf in class and confidence is too wide.
49 min: Richardson surges forward and finds some space but his pass is only in the vaguest direction of Sinclair.
47 min: Sinclair skitters down the Villa left but is crowded out comfortably.
Peep! Off we go for the second half. Villa have made a change – eight touches will be all Agbonlahor gets. Rudy Gestede replaces him.
A stat from Gary Neville on Sky Sports: Gabby Agbonlahor had eight touches in that half – the lowest in the Premier League this season – and two of them were kick-offs.
Peep! Peep!! And that’s that. Spurs have a two-goal lead at the break without really getting out of second gear.
Updated
GOAL! Tottenham 2-0 Aston Villa (Alli 45+1)
And just as Villa look like they’re going to get to half-time in touching distance, Spurs double their lead. It was a fine strike from Alli, controlling on his knee and volleying home from the edge of the box, but weak defending from Villa again – Lescott’s header from what was admittedly a cracking Rose cross was straight to the young midfielder. Alli kept his composure nicely, though, to strike the ball sweetly home.
Updated
44 min: Passpasspass from Spurs. Passpasspasspasspass. It’s all a little directionless and enough to get a few in the home end grumbling in frustration.
43 min: A poor Eriksen free-kick causes all manner of consternation in the Villa box, with three Vill players eventually Keystone copping the ball away at the third attempt.
41 min: Ayew’s first contribution is to clatter into Dier. He becomes the first name in Mike Dean’s Big Book Of Very Bad Men.
39 min: A succession of free-kicks as the game descends from its general background level of A Bit Scrappy to Very Scrappy.
37 min: Yes, Ashley Westwood’s evening is over. A strange one that – it looked a pretty innocuous tussle at the time. He’s replaced by Jordan Ayew.
35 min: The midfielder’s nose does look a bit swollen and he’s very gingerly heading to the touchline for more treatment.
34 min: Westwood requires some treatment after getting an inadvertent whack in the face from Dembele.
32 min: … whipped into the six-yard box but cleared away.
31 min: Rose’s cross cannons away off Hutton. Spurs corner …
29 min: Bacuna hoists a free-kick into the Spurs box. It’s nodded away but Grealish pings a shot goalwards from the edge of the area after picking up the loose ball. It pinballs away of the various shins crowding the box.
28 min: Head tennis.
26 min: Dembele works himself a little space 30 yards from goal … and smashes the ball into the terraces high behind the Villa goal.
Updated
25 min: … from which Rose smites a dipping shot just over the bar.
24 min: Fine save from Guzan! A brilliant pass from deep picks out the run of Kane, who cuts inside a slipping Clark and fires a shot at goal. The deflection almost beats the American keeper, who tips over the bar for a corner …
21 min: A painful blow for Bacuna allows the ball to run through his legs and turns what would’ve been a comfortable pass for him into a hospital pass for the midfielder. Rose clatters into him but there’s no lasting damage done.
20 min: Despite that early goal, it’s not been a great game thus far. Spurs are the better team but they haven’t really threatened Guzan since that strike.
19 min: Lamela is caught offside from Walker’s pass.
Updated
17 min: Hutton dinks a deliciously inviting cross into the Spurs box, but there’s no Villa man looking to get on the end of it. It’s enough, though, for the home fans to just turn up the volume a notch – they’re not really dominating things at the moment.
16 min: Perhaps the best angle of what I’m thinking of as Mike Dean’s Happy Advantage:
Mike Dean realises just too late that running to the corner flag to celebrate his advantage would be a dreadful move pic.twitter.com/AMWWkibYE9
— Alex Hess (@A_Hess) November 2, 2015
15 min: Guzan just nips in ahead of Kane as the Spurs striker looks to get on the end of a long ball.
Updated
13 min: “Pretty Average Goalkeeping from Guzan as well, if I may say.” And you may, Lou Roper. He’s having a pretty dodgy season actually.
More Mike Dean:
This is why you make sure you score when Deano gives to advantage. https://t.co/RYw9ZdhsfO
— Matt Furniss (@Matt_Furniss) November 2, 2015
12 min: Fine save from Hugo Lloris! Sinclair skips past a couple of week challenges on the Spurs right and fizzes a shot in that the goalkeeper does well to turn away.
Updated
11 min: Alderweireld does well to snuff out the danger as Hutton plays a dangerous ball into the left channel.
9 min: Westwood pulls down Dembele in midfield and Spurs have a free-kick. And a few moments later Alli wins another set-piece further up the pitch.
7 min: A loose pass from Alderweireld brings to an end a period of Spurs possession. Villa can’t get a kick at the moment.
6 min: Mike Dean looked pretty pleased about playing advantage for the goal too …
Mike Dean for god sake pic.twitter.com/iqwruSptLe
— The Twelfth Man (@_The12thMan) November 2, 2015
4 min: That defending from Clark was what you might euphemistically describe as Pretty Average.
Updated
Tottenham 1-0 Aston Villa (Dembele 3)
Well, that didn’t take long. Dembele holds off Ciaran Clark on the left touchline, then rolls the Villa centre-back, powers into the box and slots the ball through Guzan’s legs.
Updated
2 min: It wasn’t entirely clear pre-match how Villa would line up, but it’s pretty much a 4-4-2 with Grealish playing a touch behind Agbonlahor.
1 min: Neat stuff from Villa in the middle of the Spurs half, but Grealish’s pass can’t pick out the run of Agbonlahor in the box.
Peep! Off we go then.
Have you listened to Football Weekly yet? No, well you can do so here.
Mind you, there’s only five minutes til kick-off and the players are in the tunnel, so you might want to leave it til later.
Here’s Mauricio Pochettino on the club’s recent fine form: “Football is present, present and present … we never think about the past.”
“I cannot take credit for this,” writes Benjamin McKinney, “but I feel it’s important to draw your attention to …”
Official:- Tim Sherwood was avant Garde. https://t.co/fWhvINMsNt
— Martyn Ziegler (@martynziegler) November 2, 2015
Lampard says of rumours that a first-team player as said he would rather lose than win for Mourinho: “It’s nonsense if it is happening and I don’t believe it is.”
Frank Lampard is in Sky’s MNF (pronounced “munff”) studio for tonight’s game. At the moment he and Jamie Carragher are analysing Chelsea v Liverpool at the weekend. If he says anything particularly interesting about the whole José Mourinho Situation, I’ll let you know.
So Tottenham are unchanged from the 5-1 win over Bournemouth last weekend, while Villa are without Micah Richards, whose suspension for the game (thanks to a tunnel scuffle at Swansea a couple of weeks ago) was announced by the FA 30 minutes ago.
Updated
The teams
Tottenham 4-2-3-1: Lloris; Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose; Alli, Dier; Dembele, Eriksen, Lamela; Kane. Subs: Vorm, Davies, Fazio, Trippier, Mason, Onomah, Townsend.
Aston Villa 4-4-2: Guzan; Hutton, Clark, Lescott, Richardson; Bacuna, Westwood, Sanchez, Sinclair; Agbonlahor, Grealish. Subs: Bunn, Veretout, Ayew, Amavi, Gil, Crespo, Gestede.
Preamble
You’ve probably noticed this already today but, in case you haven’t, Aston Villa have appointed Remi Garde as their new manager.
Which is exciting for a number of reasons, not least the pun potential.
He’ll be in the stands at White Hart Lane tonight. Yes, tonight he’ll be STANDING GARDE.
Will Villa slip to another defeat? Probably, in which case will they have LET THEIR GARDE DOWN?
If refereeing decisions don’t go his team’s way will GARDE RAIL against injustice?
If things don’t pick up under the new manager, will Villa think about CHANGING THE GARDE?
See also: REARGARDE ACTION, GARDE DOG, COAST GARDE, GARDE OF HONOUR, GARDE-IAN OF THE GALAXY and PEP GARDE-OLA.
He’s unlikely to have much influence on the side tonight, having arrived in London this afternoon. Kevin MacDonald is in the dugout this evening and charged with teasing a performance out of a team that, by the caretaker manager’s admission, is low on confidence.
Villa’s only victory this season came on the opening day. By pleasing coincidence, Spurs only defeat also came on the opening day. Since then Villa have lost eight out of nine in the Premier League, while Spurs have steadily moved through the gears. Clearly the odds are against an away win, but then losing to the league’s whipping boys would somehow be a very Spursy thing to do.
Kick-off: 8pm BST
Updated
