An afternoon when a flare overshadowed flair

Aston Villa 0 Tottenham 2

On the pitch Andros Townsend starred again, just like he did for England during the international break, but just after he had broken his Premier League duck, a Tottenham supporter threw a missile from the top tier of the Doug Ellis Stand which struck linesman David Bryan on the back of the neck.

Amazingly the official was able to carry on without obvious concern but the authorities have confirmed the incident will now be looked into.

“The FA will investigate this matter, which is unacceptable,” they said in a statement last night. “We will await the match officials’ report and will be speaking to the clubs. Such incidents highlight the dangers of pyrotechnics being used in a football stadium.”

Two supporters were arrested and Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas was quick to condemn the behaviour of the missile thrower.

“It’s not great to see and should be avoided completely,” the Spurs boss said. “I think it touched the linesman, things like this cannot have a place in football.”

Townsend had been kept quiet until he broke the deadlock in a subdued game with a strike of the left foot that went through a crowd of players including Lewis Holtby to beat the unsighted Brad Guzan 31 minutes in.

The 22-year-old was a constant nuisance in the second half when the game opened up and Spurs wrapped up the match on 69 minutes with a well-worked goal from Roberto Soldado.

“It was a great performance from Townsend and he grew late in the game,” said Villa-Boas. “He gives us so many attacking options as he can drive forward and produce great link up play.

“He had good performances for his country and took that on.

“He has a natural relationship with the full back and is learning different parts of the game. His performances will improve with time.

“He’s very grounded and down to earth so I don’t think it’ll be a problem. Before he went to England his confidence with high and he did what he was doing for Spurs.

“I think it’s natural for what he has been doing to give credit to him. He came in and grabbed his opportunity when Aaron Lennon got injured and he has been excellent since. He’s shown all his drive and motivation.

“It’s early beginnings for Andros. He’s a talented player so we like him to do well. He’s fearless and does not fear the high competition. We have five wingers for two positions so competition is very high.”

This match had started slowly with neither side creating much until Townsend finally found space to open the scoring.

After Andreas Weimann had gone close from Ashley Westwood’s cut back, Townsend could have scored again but it took a brilliant save from Brad Guzan to push away his effort.

Paulinho forced the impressive Guzan into another stop as the Villa Park crowd chanted for the introduction of Christian Benteke, who had missed the last month with a hip injury.

They eventually got their wish with the Belgian brought on for Libor Kozak and it could have been the perfect introduction with Benteke heading over a gilt-edged chance from Leandro Bacuna’s cross with his first touch.

Benteke had given Villa greater cutting edge as the game opened up but it was Tottenham who caught them out with a superbly worked second on 69 minutes.

Soldado fired home after Paulinho’s pass from Lewis Holtby’s cross was played perfectly to him and the visitors could have scored further goals with Townsend benefitting from tiring Villa legs.

“Sometimes you come away from a game having not given it a go but I could not fault the guys,” said Villa manager Paul Lambert, who saw his winless run against Spurs extended to 11 matches.

“There was no temptation for Christian to start. He’s only trained about four days in a month and it would be unfair of him to start him.

“His first touch was a big moment, he’s unlucky and he was just overstretching for it. He’s okay. You heard the adulation within a minute of the game from the crowd.”

ASTON VILLA (4-3-3): Guzan 7; Bacuna 7, Baker 6, Vlaar 7, Luna 6; El Ahmadi 6 (Sylla 6; 73), Westwood 7, Delph 6; Agbonlahor 5 (Tonev 6; 79), Kozak 5 (Benteke 7; 61), Weimann 6.

TOTTENHAM (4-2-3-1): Lloris 6; Walker 6, Dawson 6, Chiriches 6, Vertonghen 6; Sandro 7, Paulinho 7; Towsend 8, Holtby 8 (Dembele 6; 73), Sigurdsson 7 (Lennon 6; 66); Soldado 8 (Defoe 6; 87).

Referee: Phil Dowd.