James Maddison details Ange Postecoglou's 'tired' halftime team talk that engineered Aston Villa thrashing

Tottenham's star midfielder James Maddison says manager Ange Postecoglou spotted Villa were getting tired and urged them to keep their momentum which eventually resulted in the 4-0 win. 

The north London club recorded their biggest win under Postecoglou thanks to goals from the former Leicester City midfielder, Brennan Johnson, Son Heung-min and substitute Timo Werner. Spurs came into the game five points behind Villa and left closing the gap to just two with a game in hand.

Maddison, who worked tirelessly in midfield then revealed after the game that they had spotted fatigue was setting in the Villa team just before halftime. He told SkySports after the game: "I mean he just told us to keep going and he had noticed that they started to get tired at the end of the first half and he told us to keep going and control things. 

"Obviously the sending-off helped us but it was clear to see we were in charge of the game for large parts." 

Villa are still alive in the Europa Conference League and the match against Spurs was already their 41st of the season. Tottenham will not play more than 41 games all campaign having crashed out of both the League Cup and FA Cup early. Those exits meant they had a full week to prepare for this game while Villa had to first worry about Ajax.

But the Lilywhites won't mind as the race to finish fourth is in their hands now if they can win their game in hand against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.