Houllier encouraged despite Spurs defeat

Gerard Houllier insists Aston Villa produced their best performance so far for him despite their defeat by Spurs.

Rafael van der Vaart’s brace extended Villa’s winless run against Tottenham to nine matches.

But Houllier, who had steered the club to wins in his opening two matches, maintained: “I think today was the best of the three games I have been in charge of. We need to keep competing and fighting and take more chances. But I like their attitude because they were not happy with the result.

“They were grumbling that they could have done better. You learn about your players in defeat. I told them: ‘Repeat that sort of game and you win more than you lose.’”

Houllier was unhappy about the amount of first-half stoppage time that allowed Van der Vaart to equalise.

“I was disappointed with how much time was added on,” he said. “But there’s no point complaining.”