Randy Lerner must act as Aston Villa surrender at Spurs - match analysis

Randy Lerner would have watched Villa's surrender on TV as he prepared to announce his intention to leave.

His long-awaited statement about the future of the club is due and Villa need to be put out of their misery. It cannot come soon enough.

Yesterday's insipid 3-0 defeat at Tottenham saw Villa go through the motions and look like they wanted to be anywhere but White Hart Lane.

The fans made their own statement with a series of chants including 'we want our Villa back' and 'we want Lambert out'. Their message is clear. Lerner has to deliver equal clarity.

The American no longer has the desire to be at Villa and the club are in limbo until he confirms what everyone has been waiting for.

Until then speculation reigns but it will be a happy day when the claret and blues can finally exit the self-inflicted limbo.

On top of addressing his own future, Lerner needs to clarify Lambert's prospects, although the Scot looks to be on borrowed time.

• Tottenham Hotspur 3 Aston Villa 0 - match report and pictures

He joked he had bought a £3 bow tie for the club's end of season dinner and fully expects to attend. But in the long-term Lambert could be all dressed up with nowhere to go.

A root and branch change is needed at Villa Park and that includes the manager.

'Sacked in the morning' sang the Villa fans. They could have been talking about Tottenham boss Tim Sherwood, who is expected to leave White Hart Lane, but it was instead directed at Lambert.

The manager left his seat just once in the second half, choosing to stay in the sanctity of the dugout.

He looked a beaten man as the team floundered to another limp defeat.

The game itself was meaningless, a minor sub-plot for both clubs with the long-term futures of their respective managers a bigger agenda.

And defeat meant Villa finished on 38 points, the same amount won by Alex McLeish two years ago which convinced the club to act.

His final game was a 2-0 defeat to Lambert's Norwich where Villa supporters serenaded the future manager.

This time, during a performance reminiscent of that surrender at Carrow Road, they taunted him as open revolt took hold.

The gallows humour from the fans saw them mock their own side before they turned on them at the break.

Lambert trudged down the tunnel with his head down and hands in his pockets, his outlook bleak.

The manager has been relaxed since meeting with Lerner last month and undoubtedly knows where his future lies. It is unlikely to be at Villa Park.

There has been a break from the rhetoric as he talks about needing to spend money to stand a chance to progressing.

A cynic might suggest he is highlighting how well he did – under financial constraints – to future employers, verbalising his CV. A manager who can work on a tight budget will always be attractive to clubs but he is unlikely to get a bigger job than Villa.

A parting of the ways seems inevitable with Villa having lost 20 games in the Premier League to finish 15th.

Their performance yesterday showed no fight or desire as Spurs dominated from the start and ran roughshod over the ragged visitors.

Harry Kane should have opened the scoring instead of nodding straight at Brad Guzan before the keeper denied him at the near post after Villa's static defence watched on.

Spurs were able to cut through Villa with worrying ease and it only took just 14 minutes for them to edge ahead.

Christian Eriksen fed Paulinho and he tapped in after Guzan had saved his initial effort. A minute later the midfielder should have made it 2-0 but he scuffed his shot well wide after Villa were again exposed.

Tottenham's tempo dropped though and the visitors were able to regroup with Gabby Agbonlahor heading over.

But it was too pedestrian and Spurs wrestled back total control with two goals in three minutes as Villa crumbled.

First Nathan Baker deflected Danny Rose's cross past Guzan on 35 minutes before Agbonlahor handled Sandro's shot in the area and Emmanuel Adebayor buried the penalty.

In between Fabian Delph denied Kane when he raced through with Spurs threatening to run riot.

Lambert responded by replacing Jordan Bowery with Karim El Ahmadi at the break and it at least stemmed the tide.

Delph shot wide with the game, predictably, reduced to a crawl as Tottenham eased up following their earlier blitz.

Villa's biggest concern was when Guzan collided with Kane but the American recovered after treatment.

The underemployed Hugo Lloris saved Delph's 20-yard effort but it was a token response from Villa as the game, and season, sleepwalked to a close.

There was some light relief as Sherwood marked what was possibly his last appearance as boss by anointing his replacement – a fan from the stands.

Sherwood called season ticket holder Danny Grimsdale out of the crowd half-way through the second-half, handed over his much-maligned gilet and sat him down on the home bench next to Les Ferdinand.

However, like most Spurs managers under chairman Daniel Levy, the fan didn't last long and soon made his way back to stands…along with Sherwood's gilet.