SON RISES TO DAZZLE HAPLESS VILLA

Classy Grealish should not have to suffer such agony

AS Heung-min Son was submerged in a celebratory scrum, Jack Grealish fell backwards in isolation on to the Villa Park turf.

At the final whistle, Grealish exchanged thanks with the fans and small talk with Dele Alli. Whatever happens, the Premier League paths of those two mavericks will cross next season.

Grealish, the classiest player on the park if not right up to his match-changing best, will be playing elite level English club football next season.

If Aston Villa continue with calamitous, match-costing errors such as the one by Bjorn Engels 24 seconds before Martin Atkinson was due to whistle on a point apiece, they will not.

And if Son continues to finish with the precision that produced the winner in the fourth and final minute of added time, Spurs may well be playing Champions League football next season.

This is a Jose Mourinho side like no other. Allowing plenty of chances, creating plenty of chances. Vulnerable but thrilling.

A side that had numerous attempts on goal in an away match. That was once a few weeks’ worth for a Mourinho team.

And while Villa were dominant for large parts of a blisteringly entertaining game, it was hard to say Spurs’ three points were ill-deserved simply because of the amount of times they peppered Pepe Reina.

But had Engels not allowed a soft Davinson Sanchez punt to escape him and let in Son for the sucker punch and had the spoils been shared, no one would have complained.

Because before the

Bjorn blooper, this was a rattling tale of rick and redemption, disaster and atonement.

To say Toby Alderweireld had a torrid time early on would be a thumping understatement. His toils reached their peak when a limp limb feebly diverted Anwar El Ghazi’s cross past Hugo Lloris.

Yet out of nowhere, when a corner kick came his way, he spun and smashed in a halfvolley as though in homage to the absent Harry Kane.

To say Engels was a half-yard off the pace would also have

been doing him a favour and, after being caught for pace by Steven Bergwijn, Atkinson’s decision not to point to the spot was only giving the Villa defender cruel hope.

VAR overturned Atkinson’s decision and Son stepped up, putting in the rebound after Reina blocked his spot-kick.

But Engels’ temporary redemption came when he rose above Alderweireld (below, with Son) to head in a Grealish corner.

How the next 40 minutes passed without a goal is something of a mystery, although Spurs’ firing straight at Reina might have had something to do with it. Sadly for Villa, Son sussed out how to bypass him.

Grealish and his team-mates can take heart from the way they took the game to a high-quality side.

But many more defensive ricks like this one and Grealish might be the only one of them playing at

this level next term.