Unai Emery is not the first to suffer a hangover from Amsterdam but this one might linger for the Aston Villa boss.
He tweaked team shape and watched them self-destruct inside quarter of an hour and Tottenham silenced Villa Park’s buzz of anticipation.
Victory would have eased Emery’s side eight points clear of the visitors, tightening their grip on a place in the top four but hopes vanished with 15 minutes of pain at the start of the second half.
James Maddison fired Spurs into the lead and Brennan Johnson made it 2-0 within three minutes, punishing a defensive mix-up featuring Ezri Konsa and Youri Tielemans.
Then Villa captain John McGinn lost his head and left his teammates with 10 men, sent off for a wild hack on Destiny Udogie.
Heung-min Son smashed in the third as the clock ticked into stoppage time and set up with the fourth for substitute Timo Werner.
Villa remain in fourth but Tottenham moved to within two points and have a game in hand.
Although Ange Postecoglou’s celebrations were marred by another injury to key defender Micky van de Ven, who appeared to suffer another hamstring pull early in the second half.
Unlike Villa, who drew 0-0 at Ajax in the Europa Conference on Thursday, Tottenham enjoyed a clear week to prepare but, as has become their habit, were a little sluggish and just off key through the first half.
The home side were not entirely fluent either but a little slicker, and created the better situations without creating anything like a clear chance.
Lucas Digne was closest to finding the net just before the interval, with a glancing header from a cross by McGinn from the left. It flashed wide of the far post.
Until then, it had been fast and frenetic but low on incident.
Emery’s plan to revert to a system with three centre halves and wing backs did combat Tottenham’s attacking threat but they did not spring forward with the same menace.
Watkins threatened early, nipping ahead of Cristian Romero and speeding itno the penalty area but Van de Ven recovered at pace and left Villa’s top scorer in a heap.
With Pedro Porro back from injury, Postecoglou was able to select his first-choice back four and opted for Johnson ahead of Werner on the left wing.
Johnson’s speed and mobility tested Matty Cash and Konsa on a slippery surface but his delivery was inconsistent.
Yves Bissouma escaped with mistake deep in defence, passing the ball straight to Watkins before Spurs crowded him out.
On another occasion, Watkins dashed clear and tried to find Leon Bailey rather than take on the shot. Again, Van de Ven was back to intercept and the flag went up to ease Villa’s embarrassment.
Spurs lost Van de Ven after he slid full stretch to block a shot by Bailey, unnecessarily as it turned out because the flag went up for offside again.
Radu Dragusin came on to replace him and Van de Ven had not made it to the tunnel when his team took the lead.
Dejan Kulusevski released Pape Matar Sarr down the right and Maddison arrived between two defenders to force it over the line from close range.
It was not a typical Maddison goal but crucial and Spurs quickly built on the lead, with a second inside three minutes. This time, Villa were punished for carelessness in possession.
Konsa delayed a pass to Tielemans and Kulusevski nipped in to steal the ball, found Son, who moved it quickly on to Johnson, and he clipped in his third goal in six games.
Emery made a triple change in an attempt to get back into the contest, flexing to a back four but hopes of a fightback receded with McGinn’s red card in the 65th minute.
The Scotland midfielder chopped down Udogie and will now miss fixtures against West Ham, Wolves and Manchester City.
It sparked an untidy and often ill-tempered conclusion, in which Spurs stretched their lead and turned up the pressure on Aston Villa.
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