Dominic Solanke's double leads Tottenham to victory over Aston Villa in EPL

LONDON – Dominic Solanke's two goals helped Tottenham Hotspur secure a comfortable 4-1 victory over Aston Villa on Nov 3, closing the gap to just two points behind their top-four rivals in the English Premier League.

All four Spurs goals came in a storming second half after Morgan Rogers put the visitors ahead in the first period.

Brennan Johnson pulled the rejuvenated home side level shortly after half-time.

Solanke then took centre stage, producing a delicate dinked finish to put Spurs ahead in the 75th minute before converting substitute Richarlison’s cross four minutes later.

James Maddison added gloss by firing home a free kick deep into stoppage time.

“We always believe we can score many goals. It all came together today in the second half,” Solanke told .

“We had to adapt to the way they were playing. At half-time, we had time to regroup and discuss what we had to do. It’s been a few games without one (goal). I’ve been trying to get one and I got two. Buzzing with it. Nice dink finish, I enjoyed that.

“When we are playing well, we can score many goals and we showed that today.”

The result lifted Ange Postecoglou’s men to seventh in the table on 16 points – two behind Villa, who missed out on the chance to climb to third place.

Postecoglou told : “We stick to our principles. There is great belief in these players, and when we do that we are hard to stop.

“I felt the momentum was going our way. We knew we would finish strong and if we upped it a couple of gears like we can, we knew we would be hard to stop.”

Villa players wore training tops reading “Fuerza Valencia” during the warmup, in solidarity with the victims of the deadly floods in Spain, the home country of Villa boss Unai Emery.

Spurs played plenty of creative football early on but showed little penetration, despite the return of captain Son Heung-min from injury.

Rodrigo Bentancur’s shot from distance midway through the half landed on the roof of the net.

At the other end, Jacob Ramsey’s shot was deflected over the bar by Radu Dragusin before Amadou Onana headed against the post.

But seconds later Villa were ahead after Spurs failed to deal with Lucas Digne’s corner, Rogers poking home after Guglielmo Vicario made an initial save.

It was the only shot on target either side mustered in the first half, continuing Spurs’ habit of conceding first and highlighting their weakness at dealing with set pieces.

Spurs could have been in deeper trouble had Ollie Watkins not skewed his shot wide shortly before half-time.

Postecoglou opted not to make changes at half-time and his side were level in the 49th minute, when Johnson steered home Son’s inviting cross at the far post.

Minutes later, Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez got a strong right hand to keep out Solanke’s close-range effort, as Spurs suddenly found rhythm and intensity.

Villa captain John McGinn flashed a shot just wide, before Son and Bentancur were substituted as Postecoglou introduced Yves Bissouma and Richarlison.

The game was there for the taking and Spurs seized the initiative, with Dejan Kulusevski finding Solanke, who finished delicately over the diving Martinez.

Shortly after, Villa lost the ball in midfield and Spurs broke at pace, with Pape Matar Sarr feeding Richarlison, who crossed for Solanke to convert from close range.

Maddison made it 4-1 in the 96th minute, netting his 50th Premier League goal.

McGinn said: “They punished our mistakes.

“We had a chance at 2-1 to equalise. The third one was a mistake and then a great free kick for the fourth.” AFP