Tottenham 2 Aston Villa 1: Full time report
Rafael van der Vaart cemented his status as Tottenham's new talisman as they came from behind to beat Aston Villa in the Barclays Premier League and once again avoid a European hangover.
Van der Vaart scored twice to take his tally to four goals in three appearances at White Hart Lane, his £8million signing looking more of a bargain by the day.
Not for the first time after a Champions League match this season, Spurs paid for a slow first half and Marc Albrighton's first Villa goal almost handed the visitors a half-time lead but Van der Vaart levelled deep into stoppage time before rifling home a 75th-minute winner to end Gerard Houllier's winning start as Villa boss.
It was a virtuoso performance by the transfer-deadline-day capture from Real Madrid following his Jekyll-and-Hyde display against FC Twente in midweek, demonstrating just how much he will be missed for this month's trip to Inter Milan.
Tottenham fielded a makeshift centre-back partnership today of Tom Huddlestone and Sebastien Bassong, their 10th in 12 games this injury-blighted season, after Ledley King failed a late fitness test.
Even with King available on Wednesday night, Spurs looked too open for comfort at times and today's line-up appeared even more attack-minded.
And they should have been ahead inside five minutes today when Roman Pavlyuchenko nodded over Luka Modric's left-wing cross.
But Villa began to take control of the game and, after a couple of half-hearted penalty appeals, they went ahead.
