Villa 0 Tottenham 4

Jermain Defoe's double and strikes from Paulinho and Nacer Chadli underlined the visitors' dominance.

Marc Albrighton and Aleksandar Tonev tested Brad Friedel and Villa wanted a penalty for a foul on Nicklas Helenius but dominate Tottenham gave their hosts little chance.

Jed Steer had kept Spurs at bay in the first half with stops from Defoe and Erik Lamela.

Paul Lambert made seven changes from the 1-0 win at Norwich as Albrighton made his first appearance since January after a nine month injury nightmare.

Matt Lowton, Nathan Baker and Joe Bennett were also recalled in defence and Libor Kozak made his full debut after his match-winner on Saturday.

Spurs started £30m record buy Lamela with Defoe, and debutant Vlad Chiriches also in from the off.

And Baker was called into action after just five minutes when he recovered to deny Harry Kane with a fine block as the striker raced through.

Spurs dictated without finding another killer ball with Sandro and Paulinho happy to direct the play from deep.

But Albrighton almost made a dream return when he latched onto Kozak's knockdown only to see ex-Villa stopper Brad Friedel save on 15 minutes.

Steer was then called on four minutes later when he beat out Defoe's rasping 18-yard drive with Spurs' movement causing Villa constant problems.

And Steer was relieved to see the ball fly wide minutes later when Defoe charged down his clearance.

It was becoming a battle between the pair and Steer kept Defoe out two minutes before the break with a low save, minutes after turning over Lamela's strike.

But Villa's resistance was broken in first half stoppage time when Holtby lifted a delicious ball over the home defence and Defoe raced in to head past Steer.

The lead was deserved and Villa reacted by replacing the ineffective Kozak and Karim El Ahmadi with Jordan Bowery and Helenius at the break.

And Helenius almost made an instant impact when he raced onto a long ball only for Vertonghen to fall and pull the striker's shorts down – stopping him from getting a decent shot away and firing into the Holte.

Villa wanted a penalty and their complaints grew when Spurs made it 2-0 after 49 minutes.

Lamela's free kick was deflected wide and when Holtby swung in the corner Paulinho stabbed in at the near post.

It settled the game with Spurs happy to sit and pick Villa off as their hosts went chasing the game.

But the hosts failed to seriously penetrate apart from when Tonev's strike was palmed away by the underworked Friedel with five minutes left.

And Tottenham added the gloss to the result on 87 minutes when Bowery gave the ball away to Defoe to slip in Chadli who beat Steer at his near post.

Defoe made it 4-0 in injury time when he raced clear to round Steer and stroke in.