Matt Scott mutters politics… 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 Frédéric Kanouté, who outmuscled Liam Ridgewell before sweeping his shot home from the edge of the area.
Peter Snow might have been diverted from his pre-election analysis to explain what the effect of that two-goal swing would be in the Premiership's final reckoning. It was obvious what the Villa dugout thought. Yet Roy Aitken and David O'Leary's reactions of dismay and disgust did nothing other than to dispirit their players. Chins slumped into claret-and-blue chests while Spurs were spurred.
Spurs' lead was doubled and then trebled within the next 20 minutes by openings created by poor defending and it was Villa's inability to clear from set plays which cost most.
Ridgewell, completely 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 England defender obligingly 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 Kanouté, 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.