• Aston Villa 1-2 Tottenham

It got nasty, says Villa boss Lambert

Christian Benteke was confronted by Roberto Soldado after an altercation with Spurs youngster Ryan Mason © Getty Images

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Paul Lambert says Aston Villa's Premier League defeat against Tottenham got "nasty" after striker Christian Benteke was sent off following a scuffle that involved many of both teams' players.

Villa ended their 547-minute run without a goal early in the first half when Andreas Weimann swooped to finish from close range, but Benteke was sent off just after the hour mark when he raised his hand to Ryan Mason's face.

Spurs went on to turn the result on its head with goals from Nacer Chadli and Harry Kane in the 84th and 90th minutes respectively, and Lambert was left to rue the red card that "changed the game".

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He said: "There's things on the pitch which were a bit nasty, I thought. I'm not condoning what Christian done, you can't raise your hands and get away with it. But if you look a few frames before that, you see that the lad's actually bumped him - but Christian can't react to that, but he's provoked him as well.

"[Before the red card] I thought we were really comfortable and well in the ascendency of the game. I thought Benteke was excellent and he and [Charles] N'Zogbia were playing ever so well together.

"It changed the game in the sense that it gave Tottenham the ascendency to play against 10 men."

Lambert's Villa side had not scored in their last five games and although they broke the deadlock on Sunday, the defeat marks their sixth straight loss and leaves them just two points above the relegation zone.

Lambert added: "I thought we were excellent, we could have won the game. The chances we had in the first half, I don't think they could cope with Benteke and I thought N'Zogbia was excellent, but with 10 men we gave it everything we had."

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