One of the best things about the holiday season is that the English Premier League is on almost every day. In the span of about 10-11 days, most teams have four games scheduled. Typically, there is a game the week before Christmas, then a full slate on Boxing Day (December 26), a set of games a few days after that, and then a final game a few days after that. Spurs played Villa on Boxing Day and have another game only 2 days later on the 28th. It's too many games in a short period of time, but strictly from a fan's perspective, it's a good thing.
Fortunately, the game before Christmas weekend was postponed due to snowy weather in Britain. Two more games were postponed on Boxing Day but the Spurs game went ahead as scheduled. Some fans called this our best performance in the league this season. Van der Vaart (VDV) was back from his hamstring injury and all he did was score our two goals. He has been an amazing signing for us. The game was fairly even until VDV scored on a great cross field pass from Modric and a one touch cross from Hutton...a very nice play all around. I guess the referee thought we needed a challenge, so he decided to send Defoe off with a straight red card around the 30 minute mark. It was a terrible call - a foul, yes, and a yellow card at the most. VDV was left up top by himself for the rest of the game.
We didn't miss a beat, however, and maintained possession for long stretches during the game. Down a man, we played Villa off the park for much of the game. Sure, they had chances with the extra man, but we looked just as dangerous with only 10 men. VDV scored another goal, even more beautiful then the first, while down a man, to take the 2-0 lead. They got a consolation goal towards the end of the game, but we definitely deserved the 3 points. Even down a man we looked like the better team. This was a huge win for us and keeps us close to the 4th place team. After this result we are only one point behind 4th and two points behind 3rd. It was a great performance all around!
On Tuesday we face Newcastle. It will be tough, but it and the next few games in January are winnable. We must get some results in these games if we want to be in the Champions League again next year.