The fight for fourth place continues with no side prepared to produce a knockout blow. Both of these teams aspire to Champions League football, and Tottenham would have returned to the top four with a win here, but after an invigorating first half they produced a comparatively pallid second and though the home side threw themselves forward with mounting desperation towards the end a goalless draw, Villa’s third in four league games, was the result.

It was perhaps just as well that Harry Redknapp, the Spurs manager, had rubbished the recent suggestion of his Arsenal counterpart, Arsène Wenger, that Villa play a long-ball game. There was no doubt which side employed that tactic with more regularity here, such was the regularity with which the home side launched the ball from their own half towards Peter Crouch.

Much as it might horrify their north London rivals, Spurs can hardly be blamed for relying on such a potent weapon. Crouch played his part to perfection, rarely losing possession and twice in the opening 20 minutes touching long balls neatly into the path of Luka Modric, the Croat shooting weakly when well placed in the fourth minute and returning the ball to Crouch in the 18th only for Brad Friedel to save smartly.

The recent defensive record of both sides – it had been three minutes shy of five matches, and almost two months, since any visiting player scored here in the league, while Villa arrived in search of a fourth successive clean sheet in this competition – suggested that such chances might prove hard to come by. Villa’s hopes deteriorated further when Emile Heskey was injured early on in a collision with Wilson Palacios, but both sides had decent opportunities to score.

From David Bentley’s 14th-minute corner Ledley King sent a free header straight at Friedel, though Defoe should probably have turned in the loose ball. Friedel later in the first half brilliantly saved from the Spurs captain, this time after a Modric free-kick. At the other end, Heurelho Gomes pushed away James Milner’s low shot in the 28th minute and rose quickly to put Gabriel Agbonlahor’s follow-up effort behind for a corner.

The steady flow of chances did not survive half-time. In the first 15 minutes after the interval both Stewart Downing and Ashley Young sent free-kicks from dangerous positions well over the goal, while the impressive Tom Huddlestone ended a Spurs break with a low shot from 20 yards that Friedel pushed around the post.

Jermain Defoe was largely peripheral, as if the effort expended in scoring a hat-trick at Leeds in midweek had left him exhausted rather than inspired. With Villa’s defence apparently in control they enjoyed a productive spell, though all they had to show for it was a couple of half-hearted efforts from Heskey’s replacement, John Carew.

Spurs threw bodies forward in a final quarter-hour that they totally dominated, but their attacks simply gave the visiting defence further opportunity to prove their excellence. With 10 minutes remaining Defoe was played in for the first time, only for Richard Dunne to steal the ball off his toes with a brilliant tackle. The ball fell to Crouch, whose shot from 20 yards deflected narrowly wide of goal. Then in the 90th minute Dawson headed a corner to Crouch, who improvised a backheel that, like so much of what preceded it, was not quite good enough.

THE FANS’ PLAYER RATINGS AND VERDICT

Bill Allfrey, PlanetSpurs.com Martin O’Neill’s game plan was to stop us ­scoring and it worked. Villa have got to be ­happier because they didn’t come to win and Spurs, just like against several teams at the Lane this season, did not find a way past the bus parked in front of goal. We played well but just couldn’t find the net. The one player they used to attack on the break was Ashley Young but Gareth Bale had the measure of him – the wide players did very well, and Dawson and King in the centre of defence were first-class. But in the last 20 minutes Villa didn’t come up our end.

The fan’s player ratings Gomes 7; Corluka 7, Dawson 7, King 7, Bale 8; Bentley 8, Huddlestone 7, Palacios 7, Modric 7; Defoe 6,Crouch 7

Nigel Ashford, Observer reader With all the cup games we’ve had recently I think a lot of people didn’t realise this was one of our biggest games of the season. They ­murdered us 1-1 at our place, whereas today they had to come on to us, and though they had a lot of possession Villa’s defence was resolute. We were well in the game, too, at half-time before fading a bit in the second half. You never quite know what to expect at Spurs but the stakes were so high that it made for a cagey game that took ages to find a pattern. Spurs will be upset with that but I’m positive – we stood tall.

The fan’s player ratings Friedel 9; Cuéllar 6, Dunne 8, Collins 8, L Young 8; A Young 6, Milner 7, Petrov 6, Downing 6 (Sidwell 88 n/a); Agbonlahor 8, Heskey 8 (Carew 21 4)

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Premier LeagueTottenham HotspurAston VillaSimon Burntonguardian.co.uk

Tottenham’s victory marked another step towards the dreamland of fourth place and Champions League football for the club next season. The win was deserved as Fulham rarely looked like they might depart north London having denied Tottenham their first three points at home since 28 December, when West Ham were beaten here.

Chris Smalling, the 20-year-old defender whom Manchester United had announced yesterday would be joining them this summer for a deal thought to be worth about £7m, was given his second ever start in Fulham colours by Roy Hodgson. The Fulham manager was conscious that his team had yet to enjoy a league win in 2010, their previous victory being the 3-0 win over Manchester United at the Cottage before Christmas. Barely a minute had passed when they nearly allowed Spurs to score.

Jermaine Defoe offered a flick that ran the ball across the edge of the 18-yard line and which went unchallenged by a visiting defender. This allowed the midfielder Tom Huddlestone to unleash a low, swerving effort which Mark Schwarzer tipped around the post to concede the corner.

While that amounted to nothing, there was further evidence of the Spurs play developed under Harry Redknapp, which consists of easy technique and slick touches that relays the ball from back to front at speed.

Yet after Huddlestone had prompted David Bentley to attack down his right flank and Gareth Bale had failed with similar attempts from his left-back berth to involve Luka Modric, the home side nearly conceded.

From a corner taken by Damien Duff the ball eventually broke back to the winger. He advanced a couple of steps, then delivered a cross from the right that fell to Bobby Zamora, via Zoltan Gera. The former Spurs forward was close to Heurelho Gomes’ goal but the keeper smothered the shot.

While the Brazilian picked up what appeared a shoulder injury that required treatment in the challenge, a little later Peter Crouch felt the quality of Smalling’s tackling technique when he dumped the England striker on his backside in front of the team benches.

Crouch, though, wore the grin after 27 minutes. David Bentley, starting in the League for a first time since October, swung in a high cross with his left foot. The ball broke to Bjorn Helge Riise close to his goal. But the Norwegian was too slow. Luka Modric’s bicycle kick at the ball found Crouch before Schwarzer, and the striker tipped the finish beyond Fulham’s keeper for his fifth league goal.

At half-time each manager’s chat might have consisted of the requirement to tighten up whenever ball neared goal. Riise proved the point for the visitors when cutting casually in from the right, unloading a cross-shot, then watching as his effort flashed in front of a static Spurs rearguard before the ball pin-balled to safety.

Spurs emerged from the opening exchanges of the second half having convinced they possessed the appetite to walk away from the game with all three points.

The clearest chance arrived when Bentley sliced the ball into the area. Defoe, who had thus far been quiet, found the delivery curving on to his head but though his effort spun goal-ward with power, it was too high.

Fulham’s own attempt to threaten the score-line as the hour was passed had been a give-and-return between Duff and Riise, which placed the Irishman on a diagonal to the right of Spurs goal. His effort, though was too straight and gathered in by Gomes.

Then, the home side had what they hoped would be the clincher. Bale drew the foul when finding himself in a Fulham sandwich to the left of the visitor’s area. Bentley’s free-kick had dip but after glancing the head of Riise in the wall, it floated beyond Schwarzer and that was 2-0.

It was, indeed, the goal that ended Fulham’s resistance. Birmingham, at St Andrews on Saturday, should be a little tougher.

Premier LeagueTottenham HotspurFulhamJamie Jacksonguardian.co.uk