Aston Villa 0-4 Tottenham: Super Son treble fires Spurs closer to Champions League

Birmingham, April 10: Son Heung-min hit a blistering hat-trick as Tottenham stamped their authority on the race for fourth place with a 4-0 win at Aston Villa.

Boosted by Arsenal's earlier defeat to Brighton, Tottenham moved three points past their north London rivals after a clinical second-half effort at Villa Park showed Antonio Conte's team at their best.

All the momentum, for now, is with Spurs, and they led from the third minute when Son fired in off the left post.

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Harry Kane helped to create the second for Dejan Kulusevski and also set up Son to stretch the visitors' lead to 3-0, before Kulusevski fed Son to fire in his third of the game.

Tottenham snatched a fortuitous lead when a wayward Kane strike hit Villa defender Matty Cash and bounced kindly to Son, whose finish in off the left upright was exquisite.

Jacob Ramsey went close to an equaliser after waltzing through the Spurs defence and forcing Hugo Lloris to save well. Lloris pushed away a long-range effort from John McGinn, before Danny Ings failed to make a firm connection on a volley.

Ings then missed Villa's clearest opening of the first half when he bundled wide after Ollie Watkins headed Ramsey's cross into his path.

Villa were to pay for those misses in the second half, with Kulusevski doubling Tottenham's lead with a classy strike across Emiliano Martinez after a headed assist from Kane.

Son made it 3-0 in the 67th minute, with Kane nodding Cristian Romero's long pass into the path of the forward, who made no mistake after running beyond the Villa defence.

The hat-trick strike came in the 72nd minute when Son played the ball to Kulusevski on the right before making his way infield and finding space just behind the penalty spot to sweep in.

Tottenham were so rampant that Ashley Young resorted to hacking down Kane with a late challenge, leaving the England striker hobbling. Young was booked, as was Kane for a lunge at Leon Bailey in the closing moments, a rare misstep.