Superior Aston Villa cruise past Spurs thanks to Ramsey and Rogers

Newsflash: the Tottenham diehards who travelled to Villa Park are rather keen for Daniel Levy to sell up and leave their club. The refrain against the chairman pounded throughout this FA Cup tie. What they would also like is something more from their team.

When Spurs previously faced Aston Villa, they beat them 4-1 at home in early November and it has been pretty much downhill ever since, just eight wins in all competitions, a slide from seventh to 14^th in the Premier League.

Ange Postecoglou can now reflect on another route to silverware being blocked off, three days after the Carabao Cup semi-final exit at Liverpool. His numerous injured players (11 at present) cannot return quickly enough but what is left of the season?

Spurs can say that they created a few chances and they fought until the end. There was a goal for the new arrival, Mathys Tel, in stoppage-time, which hinted at a ludicrous comeback but it was just an illusion. Aston Villa were far superior, more cohesive, pleasingly hard-running and they can look forward to an appearance in the fifth round for the first time since 2015 thanks to goals from Jacob Ramsey and the outstanding Morgan Rogers. The only issue for Unai Emery was the profligacy of his team. They could have won by a fistful.

It was an occasion when the tone was set early, Villa flying out of the blocks, Spurs so porous. Try as the visitors did, they could not reverse the flow. The first Levy Out chants were heard in the second minute and by then, Spurs were one goal down.

The breakthrough was all about the cut and thrust of Rogers, who swayed around Lucas Bergvall and sprinted up through the lines before going left to Ramsey. From a Spurs point of view, it was too easy for Rogers. What Postecoglou really did not need was for his goalkeeper, Antonin Kinsky, to offer a passable impression of a hologram. Ramsey’s shot went through him.

The stadium bounced to a raucous beat, the presence of Marcus Rashford in a Villa jersey for the time since his loan signing from Manchester United – albeit only as a substitute – a part of it. There were placards bearing his name, demands for his shirt; a tremendous roar when the announcer got down to him on the team sheet.

Emery would bring on Rashford in the 66^th minute. It was his first action since 12 December and his deep freeze under Ruben Amorim at Old Trafford. Playing as the No 9, he would clatter Kevin Danso with a stray arm and follow through into Archie Gray as he attempted a shot. In short, Rashford was rusty.

Jacob Ramsey drills home the opening goal for Aston Villa. Photograph: Catherine Ivill/AMA/Getty Images

The opening 20 minutes were an ordeal for Spurs and it said plenty that the travelling supporters resorted to gallows humour. “We’re fucking shit,” they chanted after an excruciating attempt to play out from the back had failed. There was also: “How shit must you be, it’s only one-nil.”

Villa were rampant in the first half, storming through Spurs’s flimsy ranks time and again. Rogers enjoyed himself in the space behind Donyell Malen, who Emery had started up front. Ramsey got plenty of joy off the left. Villa worked Kinsky on a handful of occasions before the interval, especially during the initial onslaught and he mixed decent stops with wobbly moments, failing to get the ball away to the side with some of his parries.

How was it only 1-0 at half-time? Even more crazy was that if Son Heung-min had taken a golden chance on 24 minutes, it might have been all square. Instead he shot too close to Emiliano Martínez following Mikey Moore’s cross. Ezri Konsa had tried to get back with Son only to pull up with what looked like a muscle injury, a worrying development for Villa given their fitness issues in central defence.

Spurs had flickered towards the end of the first period and they dug out a foothold upon the restart. With Yves Bissouma on for Moore, they had a better balance. Son was denied by a saving challenge from Konsa’s replacement, Lamare Bogarde, and there was the moment when Pedro Porro teed up the Spurs captain. Except that Son looked for Bissouma rather than taking the shot himself and the chance went begging. It was another illustration of Son’s tentativeness.

Spurs’ vulnerabilities did not go away. Ramsey was denied one-on-one by Kinsky and Villa were in front by the time Emery sent on Rashford and another glamour loan signing, Marco Asensio, for their debuts. It was Malen playing the give-and-go with Leon Bailey and when he crossed and Porro could not clear, Rogers lashed high into the net.

Asensio wowed with a touch and backheel for Rogers, which ended with the latter running through and shooting wide and there was another fine one-on-one block by Kinsky to thwart Ramsey. Spurs chased redemption on a collective level and, after Danso blew a golden opportunity, Dejan Kulusevski crossed for Tel to touch home. It was too little, too late.