Second-half goals from James Maddison, Brennan Johnson, Heung-Min Son and Timo Werner gave Tottenham a huge 4-0 victory at 10-man Aston Villa on Sunday.

Billed as a significant match in the race for a top four finish, Spurs breezed into a 2-0 lead shortly after half-time and then capitalised on the sending-off of home captain John McGinn to add two more goals late on, moving to within two points of the fourth-placed hosts with a game in hand.

There was no sign of what was to come after a relatively quiet first period – Ollie Watkins bustled past Cristian Romero but was denied by a superb tackle by his retreating centre-back partner Micky van de Ven early on, while the same Villa player was denied by a Romero block right at the end of the half, with Lucas Digne subsequently sending a stooping header just wide of the far post.

Tottenham lost the services of van de Ven just after the interval, the defender limping off after brilliantly denying Leon Bailey, who was later flagged offside, with Radu Dragusin thrust in for his most significant amount of game time yet, and the January signing didn’t disappoint with some key interventions throughout the rest of the game.

Spurs took the lead just after that, Pape Matar Sarr – one of three changes to the starting XI from last week’s home win over Crystal Palace – advancing down the right and squaring for the arriving Maddison to steer home on the stretch from six yards out.

Three minutes later, Dejan Kulusevski stole possession from Youri Tielemans and it was three-on-one at the back for Villa, Son teeing up Johnson to turn home, much to the delight of the travelling faithful.