Aston Villa have taken a vital point from Tottenham with a 1-1 draw at Villa Park today.
The West Midlands club scored first via a deflected shot off William Gallas from Ciaran Clark from long range in the 35th minute before Spurs left-back Danny Rose was sent off for a dangerous tackle on Alan Hutton five minutes into the second half.
But Villa did not make the most of their one-man advantage and conceded a penalty when Richard Dunne appeared to have won the ball in front of Sandro who did receive contact with the centre-back putting in a slightly clumsy challenge.
Emmanuel Adebayor stepped up to the spot in the 60th minute and sent Shay Given the other way to give Spurs a lifeline.
Tottenham had the better of the chances earlier with Villa keeper Given superbly denying Gareth Bale's volley before Rafael van der Vaart almost equalised but his curling effort was just wide of the mark.
In the end though, Spurs could not get the goal they needed to go clear of Arsenal in third as Villa managed to secure a point which sees them stay three points clear of the drop zone.
Aston Villa: 1 (Ciaran Clark 35') Tottenham: 1 (Emmanuel Adebayor (p) 61')
Villa Park, Birmingham - 36,008
Yellow cards:AV - Richard Dunne 60' TOT - Younes Kaboul 18', Sandro 90+6'
Red card:TOT - Danny Rose 50'
