Their goalkeeper may well have produced the save of the season last night, but, more pertinently, can Tottenham Hotspur save their season? Only modest significance should be attached to a Barclays Premier League table that has Hull City in fifth and Tottenham dead last, but one point from four fixtures is their worst start for 34 years.

The first match after the closure of the transfer window, with expensive new signings on show, should be a moment imbued with fresh optimism. Yet this was a case of new personnel but old frailties for Tottenham. No doubting which of these sides look better equipped to muscle their way into the top four, which is what Aston Villa did with this victory.

“I’m not so much worried about fourth as getting points on the board to breed confidence,” Martin O’Neill, the Villa manager, said. “We’ve won the game and played delightfully with some brilliant moves and fantastic performances, but you couldn’t make a [long-term] assessment. We’ve got loads of things to do to make us into a proper side.”

Villa were so impressive that O’Neill’s last sentence carried a whiff of false modesty. It might have been more credible as a verdict on Tottenham. “It’s an uphill struggle but it’s still early,” Juande Ramos, their head coach, said. “There’s still room for us to improve. But we haven’t had much time to prepare with the new signings. We’re quite far behind with that.”

Vedran Corluka, the Croatia full back, who cost £8.5 million from Man-chester City, looked as if he had been sent into a catatonic state by the shock of his nation’s defeat last week. The same could be said of his compatriot, Luka Modric, who came off with a knee problem after half an hour. Roman Pavlyuchenko, Tottenham’s other pricey debutant, struggled for relevancy. Filling Dimitar Berbatov’s boots? Far from it.

Last October’s encounter at White Hart Lane was one of the most memorable matches of the season. Villa were 4-1 up with 21 minutes left, but Tottenham recovered to draw 4-4. It was the sort of lethal-but-leaky night that Ramos was brought in to consign to distant memory, but his side have won only three league games since lifting the Carling Cup in February.

All Tottenham’s goals that autumn evening came from players no longer at the club, but if Ramos has overhauled the squad, he has yet to efface those old defensive insecurities. The home fans were lustily reminding the travelling support of that lost lead when they were interrupted, mid-mock, by a Villa goal after less than five minutes, Nigel Reo-Coker prodding in a rare goal at the far post from Gabriel Agbonlahor’s left-wing cross.

Tottenham might have been two down after only eight minutes, a cross by Reo-Coker from the right taking a deflection and pinging off the post after Heurelho Gomes was tricked by the trajectory. Think of it as the moment when a great tenor clears his throat before bursting into song. For, midway through the half, Gomes produced a majestic, elastic, other-world-ly stop to deny Gareth Barry. The Brazilian arched his body and sprang back to palm the ball off the line, and only a minute later he made another excellent save from Agbonlahor’s header.

Central midfield was ruled by the outstanding Barry. O’Neill said that Barry was prospering in a more ambitious role than the one he performs for England. “Right back to his best at club level,” the manager said. “He’s not a holding midfield player for us.”

For Tottenham, a consolation was that Aaron Lennon was bright down the right. It did not matter when, after 54 minutes, Ashley Young shamed Gomes with a tame shot from the edge of the area that bounced under the goalkeeper’s body as he dived. Think of it as the moment when a great tenor develops laryngitis. Later, when an errant back-pass evaded him and skidded wide, it was more like Paul Robinson-itis.

Villa looked safe until a piece of luck in the final five minutes that made a virtue of Tottenham’s general haplessness. An effort from Jermaine Jenas was going wide until Bent, trying to wriggle out of the way, deflected it in. It prompted a frantic climax crammed with opportunities at both ends. Another stunning Tottenham comeback, like last year? Not this time: one contrast with last season on a night otherwise notable for some striking, alarming, similarities.

Tottenham Hotspur (4-4-2): H Gomes 6 — V Corluka 4, M Dawson 4 (sub: G Dos Santos, 62min 6), J Woodgate 5, G Bale 5 — A Lennon 8, D Zokora 5 (sub: D Bentley, 46 4), T Huddlestone 4, L Modric 3 (sub: J Jenas, 29 7) — R Pavlyuchenko 6, D Bent 5. Substitutes not used: César Sánchez, Gilberto, F Campbell, J O’Hara. Booked: Dawson.

Aston Villa (4-4-2): B Friedel 7 — L Young 7, M Laursen 6, C Davies 6, N Shorey 5 (sub: C Gardner, 88) — N Reo-Coker 7, S Petrov 7, G Barry 8, A Young 8 — J Carew 7 (sub: J Milner, 63 6), G Agbonlahor 7 (sub: M Harewood, 84). Substitutes not used: B Guzan, Z Knight, W Routledge, C Cuéllar. Booked: Shorey, Carew, Agbonlahor, A Young.

Referee: S Bennett.