Premier League: Tottenham 2 Aston Villa 1

Tottenham Hotspur defeated Aston Villa 2-0 on Monday to move third in the English Premier League, thanks to a brace from Emmanuel Adebayor.

Togolese striker Adebayor had chances to complete his hat-trick after his two strikes at White Hart Lane ended a run of seven appearances without a goal.

Tottenham were boosted by the return of manager Harry Redknapp to the bench after a period of absence following heart surgery.

But it was visitors Villa who started the match strongly and could have gone ahead inside the first minute.

Emile Heskey got on the end of a deep cross from Stilian Petrov, but Kyle Walker did enough to prevent the striker heading the ball back to partner Darren Bent.

It proved a false start for Alex McLeish’s away team, and after that, it was all Spurs.

Rafael van der Vaart’s clever trickery on the edge of the box nearly put through Adebayor, but the pass was too heavy and went harmlessly through to goalkeeper Shay Given.

Benoit Assou Ekotto’s cross-field pass then found Aaron Lennon, who nipped past Stephen Warnock with ease.

His delivery was headed into the ground and wide by Adebayor, who should have hit the target.

The on-loan Manchester City striker made amends for his error shortly afterwards, showing great technique in the six-yard box to open the scoring after 14 minutes.

Younes Kaboul’s volley was deflected wide, and from the resulting corner Adebayor scored with an overhead kick after Villa’s defence fell asleep on the second ball back into the box by Gareth Bale.

Van der Vaart twice went close again, as did Adebayor, before Villa’s second chance of the first-half fell to Heskey, who was played in by Gabby Agbonlahor.

The powerful centre-forward opted to try and set up Bent rather than go for glory himself, and the ball trickled out of play for a goal kick.

That poor decision making proved costly when Adebayor made it two five minutes before half-time.

The goal came courtesy of a Bale cross that was deflected up and over Given by defender James Collins, leaving Adebayor the simplest of close-range finishes.

Villa’s attempt at a response in the second-half proved uninspired.

Kris Herd crossed for Darren Bent, with the resulting header well saved by goalkeeper Brad Friedel, called into action for the first time in the match.

Adebayor went close for his hat-trick on numerous occasions.

And he had the ball in the back of the net late on, but play had already stopped with Lennon flagged for offside.

Spurs had further chances after that but could not add to their tally.

Nevertheless, they saw out the closing exchanges for a comfortable victory.

Tottenham are now four points behind Manchester United and nine back from leaders City.

Villa meanwhile sit eighth, and remain without an away win from six league matches on the road this season.