Aston Villa 1 - 2 Tottenham Hotspur: Van der Vaart maintains Redknapp's Villa hoodoo

Tottenham's talismanic midfielder Rafael van der Vaart ensured manager Harry Redknapp maintained his hoodoo over Aston Villa.

Despite a 27th-minute straight red card for Jermain Defoe, the Dutch midfielder scored either side of that to take his tally to double figures for the season, with Spurs unbeaten in each of the eight games in which he has scored.

Although Marc Albrighton pulled one back eight minutes from time, it was not enough to spare the home side, with Redknapp unbeaten in his last ten Barclays Premier League games as a manager against Villa.

In the 23rd minute, a sweeping Tottenham move cut Villa apart, sparked by a raking cross-field ball from Gareth Bale into the path of Alan Hutton down the right wing.

James Collins, serving as Villa's fifth skipper of the season with Ashley Young out with a knee injury, failed to cut out the Scot's low centre and Van der Vaart was in behind the centre-back to stab home from ten yards.

The visitors' joy was short-lived because four minutes later they were contentiously down to ten men for an elbow from Defoe in the face of Collins. .But apart from an early second-half strike by replacement Nathan Delfouneso, which tested Heurelho Gomes, Spurs easily held their lead until breaking with devastating effect in the 67th minute.

After an 80-yard run down the right, Bale found Aaron Lennon in space on the left and the winger played a simple pass into Van der Vaart's path for a first-time left-foot shot.

Despite Albrighton's lucky late goal, there was no reprieve for Villa and manager Gerard Houllier, who left the field to boos from the home fans.