We'd been waiting to play for fourteen long days since that draw with Chelsea and even longer to see Rafael van der Vaart partnered with Jermain Defoe.
The first half was thrilling and and both teams played with high energy despite the cold. Heurelho Gomes was making saves from the first minute. Wilson Palacios was beaten in the air by James Collins, but Marc Albrighton couldn't score with either of his efforts. Luka Modric's ball was flicked on by Aaron Lennon, but Defoe didn't have enough time or space to get the ball past Brad Friedel. In the 9th minute Gomes made a diving punch at knee-level clattering into Emile Heskey after taking the ball. The referee didn't award a penalty, but perhaps should have done.
In the 16th minute Younes Kaboul had the ball in the net, but Van der Vaart's long ball was adjudged to have gone out of play before Alan Hutton squared it. Replays weren't conclusive, but suggested the goal probably should have stood.
Heskey beat Michael Dawson in the air and Gabriel Agbonlahor had a free run at Gomes. Gomes saved his shot and put the tame follow up round the post. As I point out Kaboul's mistakes so often I will add that he made an excellent defensive header
In the 23rd minute a lovely passing move culminated in the opening. Modric played a diagonal ball to Hutton who squared it and while Collins was agonisingly close to an interception Van der Vaart got in front of Defoe and side-footed past Friedel. Four minutes later Defoe was sent off when he jumped with Collins for a header and hit the defender in the face. A red card and three-game ban is very harsh for what was, at worst, dangerous play.
I got a text from my friend Thabo saying, 'Palacios has learnt some skills over Christmas'. He knocked the ball past a Villa player, ran round him, played a one-two with Van der Vaart and spanked a shot, which Friedel tipped wide. He had a good game against a pitiful midfield.
Redknapp was wise not to change anything in the aftermath of the red card. The second half wasn't played at quite as high a tempo, but Villa steadily got more possession and chances. Even with a man less it didn't look like it would cost us and Van der Vaart doubled our lead in the 67th minute finishing off a devastating counter attack. He was strong and sent Gareth Bale on his way down the right. It was no coincidence that Bale's first impact on the game came on the wrong flank as Villa's right-back Eric Lichaj was excellent. Bale cut inside, played the ball to Lennon and Lennon knocked it back for Van der Vaart to score.
Lennon backed off Albrighton completely on the edge of the Spurs box with eight minutes to play. Kaboul tussled with James Collins, but didn't put a header in and the ball bounced past a stationary Gomes. It made the last ten minutes unnecessarily tense and on the bench, having been substituted for Peter Crouch, Van der Vaart looked like he was going to have a breakdown. In the 90th minute when the referee decided against penalising Robert Pires for a horribly timed tackle Van der Vaart whipped his Tottenham Hotspur coat in anger and in the 94th minute he was anxiously asking Joe Jordan for the time. He was on the pitch after the match hugging and celebrating with all the players. It looked like he'd really missed playing and I must admit, I missed him too.
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