• Spurs to make formal offer for frustrated Young
• Villa’s troubles play into Tottenham’s hands

Tottenham Hotspur are stepping up their pursuit of Ashley Young and considering tabling a formal offer for the England international as they seek to capitalise on the growing uncertainty at Aston Villa.

Young has been on Harry Redknapp’s radar for some time and Spurs hope their progress into the Champions League group stage and Villa’s elimination from the Europa League will help to convince the winger he would be better off at White Hart Lane.

Randy Lerner, the Villa chairman, is, however, determined to keep Young after already losing James Milner to Manchester City and will strongly resist any approach.

Young has entered into contract talks with Villa over an extended and improved four-year deal but the club’s proposal has been rejected. Discussions are expected to resume once the transfer window closes but Young is keen for his future to be resolved before then.

Tottenham are unlikely to be able to offer Young a substantial wage increase – he is earning £65,000 a week at Villa Park – but the club appear to be moving in a different direction to Villa on the field. Young has been concerned at Villa’s poor start and the lack of progress over a new manager. He cut a frustrated figure at times against Newcastle United on Sunday and again against Rapid Vienna last night.

Whether that would be enough to convince him to push for a move if Tottenham’s interest resulted in an offer remains to be seen.

Villa are expected to stand firm between now and the end of the transfer window, with Lerner aware he would be risking a backlash from the supporters if he cashed in on another leading player at a time when the club are going through a difficult spell.

Tottenham HotspurAston VillaTransfer windowStuart Jamesguardian.co.uk

Aston Villa may be two points behind fourth-placed Tottenham with a game in hand but they have scored 14 goals fewer than Spurs and their lack of a cutting edge may be factor. With Jermain Defoe starting to find the target once more Tottenham, who drew 1-1 at Villa Park in November, will expect to keep one of their rival contenders for a Champions League place at bay. Villa’s hopes of getting something this afternoon have been boosted by the return of John Carew to the squad following a knee injury. David Lacey

Venue White Hart Lane

Tickets £33-53 (0844 844 0102)

Last season Tottenham 1 Aston Villa 2

Referee C Foy

This season’s matches 18 Y48, R2, 2.78 cards per game

Odds Tottenham 6-5 Aston Villa 11-4 Draw 12-5

Tottenham

Subs from Alnwick, Kaboul, Jenas, Fredericks, Bassong, Dervite, Rose, Parrett, Kranjcar, Gudjohnsen, Pavlyuchenko

Doubtful King (knee), Pavlyuchenko (groin)

Injured Assou-Ekotto (groin, 13 Feb), Lennon (groin, Mar), Woodgate (groin, Apr), Cudicini (wrists/pelvis, unknown)

Suspended None

Form guide DWLWDW

Disciplinary record Y42 R1

Leading scorer Defoe 15

Aston Villa

Subs from Guzan, Delph, Sidwell, Beye, Carew, Davies, Delfouneso, Albrighton, Salifou, Heskey

Doubtful Albrighton (ankle), Carew (knee)

Injured Bouma (match fitness, 20 Feb), Warnock (shin, 21 Feb), Reo-Coker (ankle, May), Harewood (foot, unknown)

Suspended None

Form guide WDDLLW

Disciplinary record Y43 R2

Leading scorer Agbonlahor 10

Match pointers

• Four of the last six Premier League meetings between these sides have ended with a 2-1 scoreline

• Peter Crouch and Jermaine Defoe have scored 28 goals between them in the 28 league games they have started together

• Aston Villa have failed to score once in their last 15 top-flight away games

• Tottenham have kept four home clean sheets in a row for the second time in Premier League history

• If all matches had finished at half-time this season, Aston Villa would be third

Tottenham HotspurAston VillaPremier Leagueguardian.co.uk

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