Roberto De Zerbi told his Tottenham Hotspur players to silence the voices competing for their attention but his internal monologue would have been extremely good value at Villa Park. When Richarlison headed in on 25 minutes to double Spurs’s lead, De Zerbi, in pristine white hi-tops, motored on to the pitch as if at the wheel on Mario Kart, Marcello Quinto, one of the coaches who the Italian brought with him upon his appointment last month, not far behind him.

And that concludes our live coverage of Aston Villa ‘B’ v Tottenham. Thanks for reading and see you next time.

“Spurs are fully De Zerbing of the three points today,” writes Peter Oh.

Chelsea v Nottingham Forest (3pm) and Everton v Manchester City (8pm) are tomorrow’s matches in his majesty’s Premier League. Here’s the table:

Conor Gallagher has a chat with TNT Sports: “Fantastic performance. Exactly what we needed. Everything we worked on in the week, leading up to the game, we showed tonight. We are really happy with the three points.

“It’s been a perfect night. Hopefully it’s only the start. We want to carry it on for the last few games of the season. This is massive for us. Hopefully our confidence can keep growing …

“It’s a good goal. I’m really happy … hopefully a few more can come now. I saw it come out … I took the chance to take the touch forward, then the space opened up. It was a nice goal.”

Thoughts on Roberto de Zerbi, who took over just over a month ago?

“I can’t speak highly enough of him. He’s been so good. Every player has taken to him, everyone trusts him, he makes you feel good, confident … he’s bringing the best out of players, and it’s only the start. Hopefully we can keep learning from him, and hopefully we can build a great team.

“The fans have had a tough time this season, along with us … we’re really happy to give them this feeling tonight, hopefully it can be the start of something great.”

De Zerbi is among his players on the pitch. Handshakes and hugs all round.

“They worked so hard to win the ball back,” says Hoddle. “That will give them a hell of a lot of confidence, to go into a home game against Leeds. It’s good to see the Spurs fans enjoying an away day for a change.”

90 min+4: It’s been an excellent collective effort by Spurs. If anything, they’ll be disappointed they haven’t scored more. The fans are continuing to love life and singing lustily.

This is a third straight defeat for Villa without scoring. How will their confidence be for Forest on Thursday in the Europa League semi-final second leg? There’ll be plenty of changes needless to say.

90 min +3: Spurs are nearly there (for tonight, anyway) …

90 min: Five minutes minimum added. Gallagher gets player of the match. It appears Richarlison has picked up a knock. He’s hobbling off, with Pape Matar Sarr on for him. Lucas Bergvall on for Mathys Tel.

89 min: As if by magic, here is Villa’s best chance of the night. It falls to Mings from a corner, but he fluffs it at the near post, mostly getting his shoulder on the ball rather than head, and sending it over the crossbar. It was an excellent ball in by Leon Bailey from the corner.

88 min: Aston Villa have posed almost zero goal threat. Very very close to zero. Three off-target attempts are on the ledger now. Since Emery arrived they’ve never had a match with no attempt on target.

87 min: “If you ask any Spurs fan Gallagher has not been much cop since being bought,” emails John. “And there are reasons why Simeone thought he was not required for the Athletic Champions League challenge.”

Yeah, but he’s been good tonight. And tonight’s all we’ve got.

85 min: Emi Buendia and Leon Bailey are on for Villa. Barkley and Sancho off.

84 min: Tottenham fans are praying they can keep this two-goal lead, thus avoiding making the final five or so minutes plus stoppages terribly fraught …

84 min: Danso meets the corner with a thumping header but it’s straight at Martinez. Villa are about to make changes.

82 min: Tottenham attack after a long-ish spell on the back foot. They win a corner. Three-nil would be comfortable …

80 min: Tielemans to Watkins in an advanced, central area. Danso, who has been immense for Spurs, is booked for a muscular challenge on the England striker. So another handy set-piece for Villa …

79 min: Now Palinha coughs up a foul near halfway. Tielemans to take the free-kick. Can Villa find a goal? No. Mings fouls Udogie. The home crowd wails, partly at the ref, mostly at their own team. Villa fans are streaming out.

77 min: Rogers wants a corner, rightly, off Porro. The referee gives a goal kick. Rogers ain’t happy!

This is fizzling out a bit at the moment. Villa have more people warming up. But Tottenham are in full control, thanks largely to their relentless energy in defence.

75 min: Porro is the latest Spurs player to show plenty of desire in defence. The away fans continue to lap this up. “Oh when the Spurs go marching in …”

73 min: Kinsky hasn’t had a save to make. Villa have had three shots, all blocked.

Now Maatsen sends a good curling ball in from the Villa left. It’s a corner.

72 min: Spence sprints down the Spurs right. He cuts in, links with Gallagher, and then clips a shot just wide of the near post. Oh, the offside flag goes up anyway.

70 min: Watkins has a shot charged down. Then Sancho links with Tielemans, who bends a cross to the back stick, looking for Watkins. The England forward offers his colleague a classic striker’s thumbs-up.

69 min: Not a huge amount happening. Spurs are happy with the two-goal cushion. The fans are singing. Emery looks perplexed. Is this done? It looks done. That said, this is football, and we could yet be in for more drama.

65 min: Bentancur has gone down injured. He’s going off. Changes for Spurs: Yves Bissouma is coming on for Bentancur, and Djed Spence is coming on for Kolo Muani.

Kolo Muani, having left the pitch, goes to the Spurs fans – and it’s cheering and high-fives all round. The fans are loving it. The Frenchman gees them up a little more, raising his hands and passionately shouting his encouragement. Perhaps they can be happy after all!

63 min: Rogers has a another crack from distance. Again it’s blocked, I think by Palinha once more.

62 min: Barkley gets it near the edge of the box. A brilliant tackle by Palinha ends the danger for Spurs. Before that, there was an excellent tackle by Gallagher.

Palinha celebrated that tackle like he’d scored a goal. The passion and desire is there, it would seem. De Zerbi for PM!

61 min: Morgan Rogers has a shot, deflected out for a corner. That was Villa’s first attempt on goal! Spurs have had nine.

60 min: Villa’s Emery is pictured by the dugout, looking far from gruntled.

59 min: Re: Gallagher, it seemed odd to me a while back that Tudor wasn’t picking him. His work-rate off the ball has made a massive difference tonight, not to mention his goal.

And here is Watkins, off the bench for Villa.

58 min: Tel takes a corner for Tottenham. Nothing doing – eventually the offside flag goes up after Gallagher tries a secondary cross.

Watkins is coming on for Abraham shortly.

57 min: David Howell writes: “In asking why Emery rotated so hard for this, I have an answer: Villa’s next league match. Burnley.

“I don’t think even this non-performance would suffice to drop points at Burnley right now. And then even two Villa defeats from there can only cost them fifth if Bournemouth win all three, two of which are away and one of which is against City.

“Punting this game was absolutely the right decision for Villa, and that in turn just shows how much the run-in can come down to blind schedule luck.”

55 min: It’s taken short, and Porro does eventually get a cross in, but it’s overhit. Spurs keep it alive and the ball finds its way back to Porro again, who thwacks a shot high over the bar.

Spurs are still in control, but unless it goes to 3-0, you couldn’t confidently rule out a Villa revival.

54 min: Tielemans hauls down Pedro Porro. Decent attacking set-piece chance for Spurs … Porro to take.

53 min: Now Tyrone Mings plays a horrible pass straight out for a throw-in to Spurs.

51 min: Abraham is nearly through for Villa! But Van de Ven appears with a perfectly-timed sliding tackle. The Tottenham captain had to get that spot on, and did so.

50 min: The first five minutes of the second half hasn’t been as bad as the first five minutes of the match, from Villa’s perspective, in that Tottenham aren’t walking through their midfield and defence at will.

Ollie Watkins, warming up, makes a token attempt to applaud the home fans.

47 min: Kolo Muani has Maatsen on toast down the Spurs right, yet again.

46 min: No changes from Emery at half-time. #Surprising

Abraham makes inroads on the Villa right, and wins a corner via a blocked cross. Villa’s first corner of the night.

Sancho takes the corner short, and it caught offside from the return ball. That’s ludicrous. Get it in the mixer!

Feast your eyes on that, Tottenham fans.

Although 2-0, as we all know, is a dangerous scoreline.

A touch of reading:

45 min: Bentancur goes in the book for a cynical foul on Bogarde. One minute added. Fans are streaming out, but in fairness, probably for a pie and a cup of tea.

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.