Emmanuel Adebayor scored twice as Aston Villa were comfortably beaten by a rampant Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane.

The Togo international struck twice before half-time but the margin of victory should have been much greater, given the number of chances created by the home side over the course of the match.

Villa manager Alex McLeish made one change from the side which defeated Norwich as Carlos Cuellar was handed his first start of the season with Charles N’Zogbia dropped to the bench and Alan Hutton switched to the right wing.

The home crowd were in fine voice before kick-off with Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp returning to the dug out after his recent heart problems and his players responded with a confident performance as the claret and blues were brushed aside with ease.

Darren Bent skewed a shot over the bar from a Gabby Agbonlahor cross early on, but it was Spurs who showed the greater purpose and attacking intent which yielded a fine chance in the 11th minute.

Stephen Warnock was completely outpaced by Spurs winger Aaron Lennon and his cross from the right picked out the unmarked Adebayor, but the powerful striker somehow headed wide from close range.

Adebayor made amends for the glaring miss three minutes later with an acrobatic finish, as Villa’s fallibilities from set-piece situations were again exposed.

A Rafael van der Vaart corner was cleared to the edge of the box by Emile Heskey, but Bale dinked it back in and Adebayor swivelled to scissor kick the ball past Shay Given.

Villa continued to spend the majority of the half defending but the visitors had a rare chance in the 30th minute, when Agbonlahor broke clear on the counter attack.

Agbonlahor slid in Heskey but the forward hesitated and attempted to find Bent at the back post, rather than shoot for the goal, and put too much power on the pass and the ball went out of play.

Normal service was quickly resumed and Tottenham doubled their lead five minutes before half-time, when Bale went on a rampaging run down the left.

The Wales international skinned Cuellar and whipped a low cross into the penalty area ,which was scrambled home by Adebayor from barely a yard out with James Collins and Richard Dunne at sixes and sevens.

It was a similar story after the interval as Tottenham continued to run with the Villa midfield, save for the impressive Chris Herd, ran ragged and cut open at will on occasion.

Early in the second-half, Herd was sent clear but the forward dragged his shot wide and, moments later, former Villa loanee Kyle Walker whistled a long-range attempt past the post.

McLeish replaced Cuellar with Barry Bannan, who featured for the first since he was arrested and subsequently charged with four motoring offences including suspicion of drink driving, in the 63rd minute to give Villa more impetus down the right.

But the claret and blues never really tested former Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel, between the sticks for Tottenham goa,l and Jermaine Defoe and Adebayor both had late chances in what started and ended as a damage limitation exercise for Villa.