44 min: “Luke, as the unfortunate guardians of the term “Spursy,” we Spurs fans must point out when the term is used incorrectly, as you have done at minute 33,” emails Matthew. “Going on to lose this game, now that would be Spursy!”

My thoughts exactly. Well, almost.

42 min: Kolo Muani makes another driving run and crosses to the back stick. Tel has a sight of goal after it’s nodded back by Udogie. He blasts over, with Gallagher in a brilliant position inside him! That’s poor, and De Zerbi looks displeased. But more good work from Tottenham all the same.

40 min: Spurs remain in total control. Danso finds Kolo Muani on the right, and he drives for the byline, but Tielemans robs the ball off him with a decent tackle.

Still, the energy from the men in yellow is notable.

39 min: Well, there is still plenty of football to be played this evening. A big team talk beckons for Unai Emery. He is revving up the hairdryer as we speak.

38 min: “This comment got a Guardian “Pick” yesterday,” writes Niall.

“I wouldn’t be too concerned if I was a West Ham fan; Spurs are unlikely to beat Villa seeing as they are useless with a full squad, never mind one without a creative midfielder or any fit, half-decent strikers. Might scrape a point if they park the bus but my guess is they will go for it Big Ange-style and a tidy Villa team will simply pick them off. I’m going 4-0 to Villa.”

38 min: Tel makes a lovely pacy run down the Tottenham left. Then spoils it by thumping a bizarre effort, apparently neither cross nor shot, over the goal from an impossible angle.

36 min: “Two-nil, wow!” exclaims Yash Gupta. “De Zerbi has done good things from his first interview to handling training sessions and just being bloody good positive bloke. He has been an assuring presence and I’m excited to see how much he can improve Tottenham next season in the Premier League.”

Steady.

35 min: Spurs attack again. Kolo Muani blasts a shot over from the edge. This should be 3-0 by half time.

34 min: “Looking at that Villa lineup ... maybe Emery was a Spurs fan all along?” emails Tom.

33 min: Villa have not touched the ball in the Tottenham box yet. And it’s nearly half-time. This is a Spursy display from the hosts! (Sorry.)

32 min: Sancho plays a laughably poor pass towards the byline looking for Cash, who’s made a run inside. There are more shots of absolutely furious Villa fans. I fancy Sancho will be one of the players to exit stage left if Emery mixes it up soon.

31 min: “There was a brief camera shot which made it seem that Villa fans are already leaving the stadium,” emails Kári Tulinius. “Surely that can’t be happening at 2-0 in the middle of the first half. How badly can someone want to beat the traffic?”

30 min: Villa try to play it out from the back. Tielemans gets munched by a trademark Gallagher tackle on the edge of the penalty area. That’s a foul. But Villa really are all over the shop. Emery made seven changes and it seems he’s going to get badly punished.

29 min: “We are Tottenham, super Tottenham,” sing the away fans. Life is good for them right now.

27 min: Emery has sent out some players to warm up. A few of these Villa players are about to get hooked early doors, it seems.

26 min: Tel wraps his foot around a fantastic whipped cross from the Spurs right. Richarlison is on hand to power a header into the back of the net. Great goal. And a great start for Tottenham! Who would have thunk it?

23 min: Tel whips a lovely ball to the far post where Kolo Muani meets it, but can’t get a meaningful contact on the ball. But it’s a corner.

22 min: Spurs have had 82% possession in the last five minutes.

20 min: Villa attack with purpose for the first time. But Danso nips in with a superb tackle, immaculately timed, and breezes off with the ball to get Spurs moving forward again. Tel lines up a volley when the ball eventually arrives in the penalty area at the other end, but Cash manages to get the ball clear.

19 min: Villa are not at the races. Which is good, because they’ve got a football match to play. But seriously, they’ve started very slowly, and Tottenham will be wanting to hammer home this early advantage (pun intended).

17 min: Spurs attack again, down the right flank … the ball comes back to Palinha, who spanks a brilliant shot against an upright from just outside the area! Did Martinez get a fingertip on that? Very, very nearly 2-0 and the proverbial or non-proverbial dreamland for Tottenham.

16 min: Tottenham’s Kevin Danso down injured after a nasty, niggly foul from behind by Tammy Abraham.

15 min: “Please may I disagree agreeably with previous emails around the FA or otherwise doing anything about teams playing “weakened” teams?” writes Karl.

“We cannot, on the one hand, complain about the huge amount of games a club has to play, whilst also complaining when said club then uses its squad to focus on particular competitions when we get to the squeaky-bum end of the season.

“A club has a squad for that reason - to use the whole squad as they see fit and if that means a team has some of the lesser lights then so be it.”

I agree with Karl.

9 min: Palinha floats a good searching diagonal pass, right to left, and finds Tel in an attacking position. But his first touch lets him down. This Villa side looks a bit rickety, they’re clearly not all that familiar with each other. So far it’s been all Spurs.

8 min: “I haven’t been this nervous since the Champions League final,” writes Alexandra. “The absurd desperation of a relegation scrap is something I haven’t experienced since 2008/09, and in that season we escaped after a proactive hiring of Harry Redknapp in October and some good signings in January, ultimately ending up in 8th and in the League Cup final.

“How I crave for 8th place now! Especially considering West Ham lost earlier, we must win this in order to put some space between us and the drop, and we have absolutely no margin for error. Even when we played the Europa League final, I didn’t feel this level of pressure.”

7 min: Udogie gets to the byline running on to a pass from the left wing, leaving Sancho behind. Sancho didn’t look interested in tracking that run … the ball went out for a goal-kick anyway. Barkley hasn’t started well either, again giving the ball aawy before that.

5 min: Richarlison has an early chance at goal after Emi Martinez plays a poor pass for Barkley, but scuffs his shot, then Spurs have a corner. And then another corner. A bright start by the visitors.

“Filip makes a good point,” writes Dave. “The FA (Premier League, surely?) really need to look at clubs deliberately sending out a “weakened”, i.e. crap, side and/or tanking during a game they feel isn’t that important. Crystal Palace were an absolute embarrassment earlier.”

Here come the players, amid pyrotechnics and a blast of rock music at Villa Park. Whether you like it or not, a football match is about to take place!

“Let’s be confident, be brave, and have real character,” says Hoddle, asked what he’d be telling the players if he was Tottenham manager. “They’ve got to have that positive mental attitude today.”

We’re close to kick-off. Karen Carney says Tottenham’s players have no choice but to step up this evening and in the run-in. “You’ve got to deal with the pressure: That’s why you are professional.”

I hear that.

Credit to him, De Zerbi is very much giving off the ‘strong, experienced, unflappable manager’ energy. Just the ticket for a desperate relegation fight.

“Fully expecting Tottenham to win simply based on the garbage lineup from Emery today,” emails Filip. “Disgraceful.”

De Zerbi speaks. Has he seen improvement in the players since the win at Wolves? “Yes, they are working very well.

“I’m very happy to work with these guys. My target is to help them to show what we are.”

Simons is out. Is he confident in those coming in?

“I have big confidence in my players. Tel is a young talent … Udogie is important for us, one of the best, and Palinha is one of the first 11, if he plays or not. He’s a big lever for us.” (I think he said lever.)

Anyway, with a much-changed Villa having more than half an eye on their Europa League semi-final and West Ham having collapsed at Brentford yesterday, this is what you might call a gilt-edged chance for Tottenham to haul themselves out of the bottom three.

Spurs fans – how are you feeling? You can email me.

Pre-match reading, anyone?

Villa’s Emery now speaks to TNT Sports.

“When we are playing [multiple] matches in a few days … sometimes players are not 100% … McGinn was confident yesterday, but he was not feeling 100%, and we decided not to take a risk, so he is not going to be involved today.”

Is this a chance to set the tone for a big week?

“We are in a key moment. We are playing very, very exciting matches … in the Premier League, because we are fighting for the top five … And we are playing semi-finals [in Europe]. In the beginning of the season we were dreaming it …”

Poland’s Matty Cash had a chat a while back.

“You want to try and get as many points as you can,” he revealed.

“It’ll be a good battle, a good test, and hopefully we can win.”

This is astonishing stuff so far!

“Every game is important, if we get three today, we’re closer to Champions League … on Thursday we have an opportunity to put ourselves in a final. It’s exciting times.”

Any concerns about the last two results? (Defeats by Fulham and Forest.)

“We started the season really poorly, everyone was questioning us, then we showed what we are capable of,” he roars.

“Villa park is an amazing place to play, in front of our fans, the atmosphere is good, so hopefully today it’ll be like that.”

West Ham, Tottenham’s main relegation rivals, have three matches remaining: Arsenal (H), Newcastle (A) and Leeds (H). Tricky, very tricky.

Spurs, after tonight, have Leeds (H), Chelsea (A), and Everton (H).

Forest’s run-in looks like this: Chelsea (A), Newcastle (H), Manchester United (A), Bournemouth (H).

There has not been a draw in 21 previous league meetings between these sides, stretching back 14 years: the second-longest such run in Premier League history, points out the presenter Lynsey Hipgrave.

“Tottenham have got to be strong and bold,” says Glenn Hoddle on pundit duty for TNT Sports, adding that he is surprised at all the Villa changes having lost their last two games.