Marc Albrighton’s first Premiership goal will probably be quickly forgotten after being cancelled out by two goals, one in either half, from Rafael va der Vaart at White Hart Lane today. More of a concern, though, will be how flat Villa looked without Emile Heskey leading the line.

It started off very well, aside from some early home team assertion from Spurs, Villa were soon making their attacking intentions clear and Heskey, in particular, once again looked like a new player leading the line. Quite fitting that his strong, determined play along Tottenham’s byline forced the opportunity to send the ball across the goal mouth for Albrighton, sliding in on the left hand side.

It was significant that Albrighton joined Ash and the others in going straight over to celebrate with Heskey who absolutely made the chance out of nothing.

Sadly, Heskey was forced to retire after 35 minutes, John Carew his replacement, which happened to coincide with Rafael van der Vaart imposing himself on the game. I didn’t get chance to write a preview for this one, but having watched Spurs several times this season, I would have talked about the need for Reo-Coker and Petrov to shackle VdV in front of the box.

For half an hour they did just that, Reo-Coker was exceptionally good in the middle and Petrov mopped up the little crumbs that NRC missed, which really wasn’t much. I joked on Twitter about VdV being in Reo-Coker’s pocket and it was almost inevitable that he would shove my words down my throat.

Sure enough, the Dutchman came to life for the final 15 minutes of the half, making twice as many passes than he had during the preceding half hour and sent out clear signals of the danger he posed with his well timed runs into the box, looking to benefit from anything Crouch could win in the air.

It came right on the stroke of half time, Crouch beating Collins to Pavlyuchenko’s cross, heading the ball back across goal where VdV had slipped Richard Dunne and was able to nod in past the helpless Friedel.

Redknapp swapped Pavlyuchenko for Lennon at the break, looking to make better use of the right wing and encourage VdV to go through the middle more often. It paid dividends in the 75th minute when a move that started with Gomes in goal, moved to the left with Bale via Modric, switched to the right with Lennon who sent a cross into Crouch, nodding down for VdV whose clever touch fooled Dunne, leaving a simple chance to blast past Friedel.

Game, set and match. Villa hadn’t looked close to getting ahead prior during the half, Carew’s lack of interest in pressing from the front deriving absolute screams of frustration from captain Petrov at one point. Ashley Young, again operating as the auxiliary forward, a virtual passenger in the game, buzzing around the lethargic Norwegian.

Redknapp paused a few minutes before replacing Luca Modric with the more defensive Wilson Palacios, making his intentions crystal clear. Houllier responded with 10 minutes left by again withdrawing Petrov, the armband once again handed to the industrious Reo-Coker, Stephen Ireland his replacement with Barry Bannan coming on for Marc Albrighton at the same time.

Time ebbed away without either side really looking like altering the scoreline, the Villa subs not having chance to influence proceedings. And so it finished, 2-1 to Tottenham, far the better side for most of the game, but Villa had more of a foot in this one than we’ve had at White Hart lane for several years, yet we came away with nothing.

Ultimately, eyebrows will inevitably be raised by Dunne’s selection over Carlos Cuellar and though mistakes by central defenders and goalkeepers are magnified as they tend to lead to goals, and Dunne did make a number of impressive blocks and tackles, it can’t go without mention that it was Dunne that VdV slipped to score both goals.

Not only is it frustrating that both goals came in the same fashion today, but Kenwyne Jones’ goal at Stoke also came as a result of Dunne switching off and ball watching 2nd phase possession. There’s no guarantees that Cuellar would have done better or, indeed, have not failed where Dunne succeeded elsewhere in the game, but being dropped after his excellent performance at Wolves demonstrates a clear seniority among the centre halves which isn’t in our best interests I feel.

Elsewhere on the pitch, John Carew doesn’t come out of this game very well at all, but, sticking with positives, Reo-Coker was fantastic and he’s starting to look like the player I’ve always known was in there somewhere, fighting to get out.

As an overall team performance, it wasn’t bad at all. It was an away game against a Champions League team and we asserted ourselves much more than we have in this fixture for a while, but we didn’t get anything from it. There were some examples of top quality attacking football and at other times, when not in possession, the team were well organised in dropping into their defensive shape.

Still work in progress, but some good signs. I don’t think Carew’s head is in the game right now and I’m even less convinced about playing Ashley Young centrally and Stiliyan Petrov in general, but I’m seeing hints that things are happening through organisation and players understanding their roles more than sheer spirit.

A quick glance at the stats suggests that a point from this one would not have been undeserved and though 2-1 doesn’t flatter Tottenham, I would have been pretty pleased with a point from this one.

It doesn’t get any easier though, first game after the international break is Chelsea at Villa Park. Right now, I’d probably be delighted with a point from that one too!