The lesson here for Spurs was not that they cannot play Wigan every week, they knew that already, but rather that their luck will not be in every week. Considering they were away from home against a team only one place below them, this was a Tottenham performance almost as impressive as last week’s cloud nine.

The difference was Brad Friedel, some dogged Villa defending and, until Michael Dawson’s late intervention, a complete lack of a friendly bounce or a lucky break. Villa were comfortably outplayed, yet held a lead until 13 minutes from the end, even though their visitors created almost as many clear-cut chances as in their previous game. Even after Dawson’s equaliser, Emile Heskey headed just inches over at the end, though that would have been a travesty and Villa simply did not deserve to be that lucky.

Spurs started snappily enough, Niko Kranjcar bringing a fingertip save from Friedel with a shot from the edge of the area in the first proper attack of the game, but found themselves behind after 10 minutes through clumsy defending of a set piece. First, Carlos Cuéllar was allowed a free header from James Milner’s corner and, though a combination of Heurelho Gomes and Benoît Assou-Ekotto managed to stop it by the post, possibly illegally as the full-back appeared to use an arm, the loose ball was not cleared and Gabriel Agbonlahor forced it inelegantly home.

The visitors’ efforts to get back into the game were hampered by Wilson Palacios giving the ball away in midfield and Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe operating too far ahead of the rest of their team-mates. The closest they came to an equaliser in the first half also came from a set piece. After Tom Huddlestone’s effort from a free-kick was blocked by the wall, Defoe’s shot on the turn was beaten out by Friedel, and when Dawson seemed certain to score from the follow-up his goalbound drive was blocked on the line by Cuéllar. Defoe was still wearing his lucky boots without finding everything falling into place as it did last week. After a deflected Huddlestone shot had forced another save from Friedel, an attempt from Defoe also had the goalkeeper back-pedalling but ended up on the roof of the net.

Villa dropped back deeper and deeper as the first half wore on, content to allow Spurs to come at them as Richard Dunne and his defenders were having few problems dealing with attacks down the middle. Harry Redknapp occasionally appeared in his technical area pointing meaningfully to the under-utilised Aaron Lennon, mostly to no avail, though when Lennon did get involved on the stroke of the interval, a cross from the right produced a chance for Crouch, only to be met by a poor header.

Kranjcar began the second half as he had begun the first, with an even better shot from Crouch’s lay-off that brought an even better save from Friedel. The Croat was also denied by a brave block from the busy Cuéllar after an hour, though bizarrely Villa could have been two up by then had John Carew finished with his usual reliability from Ashley Young’s cross. Missing was turning into the story of Villa’s evening. Embarrassingly for the home side, stats flashed up on the giant screen at that very point to show that Spurs had had seven attempts on target to Villa’s one.

Spurs were even denied a penalty after 70 minutes when, from another wayward header by Crouch, the ball flew up off Luke Young’s boot and hit him on the arm. The referee did not appear to see it, and may not have felt like awarding it anyway, though Phil Dowd redeemed himself a couple of minutes later by spotting Defoe had handled the ball before bundling it into the net after Friedel had once more rescued Villa, this time with a save from Huddlestone.

Finally, after Crouch had seen an effort blocked on the line, an equaliser arrived when Dawson was given a second chance to shoot by a rare error from Dunne, and crashed a shot into the roof of the net that even Friedel could do nothing about. It was no more than Spurs and their captain deserved, and after spending much of the game on the back foot Villa could have no complaints.

Premier LeagueAston VillaTottenham HotspurPaul Wilsonguardian.co.uk