Redknapp glad to be back

Harry Redknapp was relieved to escape his living room and return to the bench for Tottenham’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa on Monday.

Spurs manager Redknapp underwent minor heart surgery on November 2, and had been forced to watch his team’s last two matches on television.

He was back in the dugout for Tottenham’s victory at White Hart Lane, a win that lifted the team up to third on the English Premier League table.

“I wouldn’t want to watch it from home again, that was nerve-wracking,” Redknapp said.

A brace from striker Emmanuel Adebayor, on-loan from Manchester City, proved enough for Spurs to come out on top, and they could have had more goals in a dominant performance.

“We played some great stuff,” Redknapp said.

“We had one or two clear-cut chances before the first goal and then the second goal went in.”

“In the second half we had two or three good opportunities that really could have killed the game off but I thought we were always in control, we controlled the tempo of the game.”

Spurs are now level on points with fourth-placed Newcastle and three points ahead of Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool.

They are on track to challenge for Champions League qualification, but Redknapp knows the race for a top-four finish is likely to be tougher than ever this season.

“It’s going to be tight,” he said.

“Liverpool yesterday showed what a good side they can be. They were fantastic at Chelsea. You can never write Chelsea off. It’s going to be so close.”

“Arsenal have come back with some great results in the last six or seven games when people were writing them off.”

“So it’s going to be close and I think we’ll be up there pushing again to finish as high as we can.”

“We’ve got good players and we’ve got a good team. Who knows what we can achieve?”

“If we can make the top four again we’ll be delighted and anything above that would be a real bonus.”

“But getting into the top four is going to be difficult this year because the competition is really fierce.”

Villa manager Alex McLeish was disappointed by his team’s poor defending for Adebayor’s two strikes.

“Both goals were … calamitous,” he said.

“Obviously it’s a shame that individuals get singled out for things like that but we’ve got to defend better.”