Jose Mourinho gets the response he demanded from Tottenham as Lucas Moura leads from the front
Lucas Moura #LucasMoura
After Thursday’s humiliation in Europe, this was a huge win for Tottenham, relieving the pressure on Jose Mourinho and helping to lift the mood ahead of the international break.
Spurs went into the game on the back of an historic collapse against Dinamo Zagreb in the Europa League, and it genuinely felt like another big defeat could leave Mourinho on the brink of losing his job.
But Spurs capitalised on two errors by Aston Villa to claim a much-needed 2-0 win through Carlos Vinicius’s tap-in and Harry Kane’s second-half penalty.
And crucially, they did not make any defensive howlers of their own, despite Mourinho naming a new-look back four.
Mourinho had demanded commitment and effort from his players and that’s exactly what he got.
Tottenham’s performance was not pretty but it was effective and feisty, with the likes of Japhet Tanganga, Lucas Moura and Giovani Lo Celso hurling themselves into challenges, suggesting that the manager retains the support of the dressing room (or at least the majority of it).
Defeats to Arsenal and Dinamo Zagreb will not easily be forgotten, but this victory made it 12 points from a possible 15 for Spurs to move them to within three points of fourth-placed Chelsea.
Champions League football remains a realistic possibility, particularly with Newcastle next up after the break.
Mourinho’s changes make the difference 
Mourinho responded to Thursday’s defeat by making seven changes, with Vinicius and Kane starting together for the first time and Tanganga and Joe Rodon coming into the back four.
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Giovani Lo Celso also started for the first time since December following injury, with Harry Winks and Matt Doherty absent from the squad altogether and 16-year-olds Alfie Devine and Dane Scarlett among the subs.
Although the introductions of Rodon and Tanganga may have been enforced by illness to Toby Alderweireld and Serge Aurier, they nonetheless were effective.
Tanganga offered thrust from right-back and threw himself into challenges, including an important block to deny Ollie Watkins’s goal-bound effort.
Rodon also made a key block on Trezeguet’s effort and was composed on his first appearance since January.
Vinicius, meanwhile, justified his selection with his first Premier League goal, a tap-in after Lucas made Emiliano Martinez pay for a poor clearance.
The finish was Vinicius’s only memorable touch on an evening where the game largely passed him by but he nonetheless worked hard, occupied defenders and ultimately justified his surprise selection.
The question for Mourinho is whether the Brazilian, Rodon and Tanganga are answers to Spurs’s problems in the medium-term or simply performed against a Villa side who continue to struggle without talisman Jack Grealish.
Lucas the star 
There was little doubt that Tottenham’s star player was Lucas Moura, who produced a superb display, underlining exactly why Mourinho adores the scampering forward.
Lucas embodied the qualities Mourinho had called for after the defeat in Croatia, working tirelessly with and without the ball in an impressive performance both offensively and defensively.
His constant harrying made the opening goal, as he nicked the ball from the toe of a Villa defender after Martinez’s weak clearance, played a one-two with Kane and crossed for his compatriot to score.
He came close to unlocking Villa with impressive mazy dribbles on two or three more occasions and again led the press with ferocious intensity, helping to set the tone for his teammates.
At present, Lucas is one of the first names on Spurs’s teamsheet and their most in-form player.