This felt like one of those days when football players decide their destiny - will they cave in to the pressure or will they carve their own path through it?
Hugo Lloris decided to get carving. Tottenham were indebted to a huge performance from their captain, who in true Gandalf-style bellowed at Aston Villa: "You shall not pass."
The 35-year-old Frenchman saved seven shots alone in the first half, ranging from an incredible point blank reaction palm over from Jacob Ramsey to full length dives to push away rockets from Matt Cash and John McGinn and ending the half with a hand on the goal line to prevent Philippe Coutinho's clever free-kick from sneaking in.
READ MORE: Every word Antonio Conte said on Son, Hugo Lloris, Matt Doherty injury and the top four battle
Villa bullied, bashed and battered Tottenham and would not let them out of their half in a bruising first 45 minutes but Spurs drew strength from their skipper and some tough words from the boss at half-time plus some tweaks to remove the space that Coutinho was operating within.
The hosts could not maintain their energy levels and Tottenham, with their Antonio Conte enforced fitness, ripped them apart as they flagged and the spaces appeared. In all Villa had 19 shots on goal, eight on target, but could not put the ball into the net even once. In contrast, Spurs had 11 attempts, five on target and scored four of them.
It was the cliched game of two halves but it was one borne of a club that is finally together again and fully aboard the Conte train.
When football.london asked the Spurs boss about Lloris' display and the character of his players, he left no doubt about his "great satisfaction" with what he is seeing right now.
"Very, very important. A strong team, a top team needs to have great character, great personality, to be strong mentally because during the game you know you can have a period that you have to suffer because your opponent is pushing you a lot," he said. "Today the first half was difficult, but we knew this because when you play against Aston Villa away in this stadium, this fantastic atmosphere, I don't think there is one team that comes here and wins easy.
"For this reason, I appreciate the effort of my players. The composure and desire to stay strong and then in the second half I think we won the game in an important way. For sure we have to be better when there is type of pressure and we have to continue to have the personality to try and play because every time we played we created a chance to score.
"If you are an opponent that puts pressure and you take the risk to play then you have space to attack. I think we have to continue to do this and improve. In the second half we were much better, also because the intensity of Aston Villa dropped and the pressure was less than the first half."
Conte added: "It was a great win for us, it wasn't easy, but a great win, especially when you play a game after the games of your rivals in the race for the Champions League and they lost. Wolverhampton, Manchester United and Arsenal.
"We had to show in this moment that you start to feel the blood of your opponent and it is important to not fail. For this reason we are working a lot on the mentality. The players are giving me great satisfaction in many aspects."
While Lloris was the hero of the first half and also contributed a pre-assist in the second period, Tottenham's other big players took on the baton after the interval.
Son Heung-min is flying again - with confidence to back the goals and assists that never left - and every time he runs through on goal, you think he's going to bury the ball in the net. So he did three times on Saturday, each strike flying inside or in off the left-hand post.
The South Korean star's 17 Premier League goals - matching last season's league high for him - puts him just three goals behind Mohamed Salah, who has five penalties among his total.
Son has taken just 54 shots to Salah's 89, with a goal conversion rate of 31 to the Egyptian's 22 and a shot accuracy of 69 per cent to the Liverpool star's 61.
When he came off Son got a big hug from Conte and another at the final whistle from Tottenham's managing director of football Fabio Paratici.
The link-up between Spurs' front three players is blossoming further with every passing match. Harry Kane is running games even when he's not scoring, making it five assists in three matches with his brace at Villa Park.
Both were flick-on headers, the first showcasing his strength to head on Lloris' big kick to Dejan Kulusevski as the centre-backs tussled with him, the second a remarkable spinning header that ensured the ball flew perfectly into Son's path. It was as good as any through ball from a player's foot.
After the game Villa boss Steven Gerrard declared that Tottenham have two world class players up front and a youngster in Kulusevski, who he believes can become a top player.
The Swede is getting there very quickly. His goal came from a run and finish through Tyrone Mings' legs and into the far corner that Kane or Son would have been proud of.
His assist, a composed pass to Son, came at the end of a flowing team move he had started on the corner of his own box with some clever footwork. You have to keep reminding yourself that he is only 21-years-old.
Kane, Son and Kulusevski hold the top three most goal involvements in 2022 in the Premier League.
The Swede has three goals and six assists, the South Korean nine goals and four assists and the England striker eight goals and seven assists.
Behind them on the pitch, Rodrigo Bentancur was composed as always, even in the face of Villa's first half pressure but it was Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg who stood out this time. The Dane battled for everything, gave as good as he got and wound up his hosts at every opportunity. After the game he posted a photo of himself on Instagram, ice packs on both knees after all the kicks he took.
Cristian Romero put in another big performance at the back, with some key interceptions, including one in the box with Spurs 4-0 up that caused him to roar and punch the air and show that the clean sheet was everything despite the points being in the bag.
The 23-year-old also managed to control his aggression enough to crucially avoid a yellow card that, allied with one next week against Brighton, would have seen him miss two subsequent matches for accruing 10 bookings.
It's worth noting that the Argentine missed three months of the season with injury, otherwise who knows how many cards he would have racked up. It's something Conte is keen to change about him but without removing his front foot defending, instead selecting the right moments to do it.
Spurs have now taken charge of the fourth place race and their goal difference has flown up from minus two to a remarkable plus 19 within a matter of weeks.
They sit three points clear of Arsenal, who have a game in hand but still have to visit the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Conte's men also have a goal difference that is 10 better than that of their north London rivals.
West Ham and Manchester United lie six points behind Spurs, having played the same amount of matches and both have far inferior goal differences.
What pleased Conte is that his team did not simply fall back on the fact that Arsenal and United had slipped up again.
"To know that your opponent lose their games, and for sure they have to give you the right desire, right will to get three points because in one hand you know our rivals lose the game if we lose, but we are still in the fourth place," he said.
"A little medium team can think this. A top, strong team thinks that it is the right moment to improve the distance over your rivals and exploit this situation. We did this despite the difficulty of the game. I repeat we didn't play against a team who are not good, we played against Aston Villa in this stadium, it's not easy for anyone to win here."
One negative for the Spurs boss was an injury to Matt Doherty, who seemed to have his knee rocked by an early challenge that scissored around it. He attempted to play on a couple of times but ultimately had to come off the pitch to be replaced by Sergio Reguilon.
"I hope nothing serious, I hope. The doctors are going to check on him tomorrow," said Conte. "I hope nothing serious because he wanted to try to continue to play but then at the end he preferred to come out. I hope so because Matthew is an important player for us and I hope this injury is not serious."
Doherty is needed in the weeks ahead. Emerson battled away but he does not have the decision-making ability or quality in the opposition half that the Irishman does.
On the pitch, Conte's mark is now all over this Tottenham team. The improvement as he gets full weeks to work with his players on the Hotspur Way training pitches - making up for the absence of a pre-season - has been there for all to see.
The Italian is drilling his players on various tactical situations to be used in matches and he's now seeing them replicated on the pitch during matches.
While nobody wants to lose the chance to win a trophy - not least Conte - the club's controversial Europa Conference League exit has clearly had a major bearing on their end to the season and that exit, plus the arrival of Kulusevski and Bentancur, could end up being key to the Conte reign clicking.
Spurs are still far from the product the Italian wants, but he knows the process is now well underway.
"For sure to see his type of improvement make me proud, give me great satisfaction," he said with a smile on his face after Saturday's exploits. "At the same time I know very well we have to continue to work under this aspect.
"The same players know very well they have to continue for this type of improvement because there is not only a tactical or technical or physical aspect during the game. There is the mentality. The mentality they know we have a lot of space for improvement. Today they showed me that the desire to also improve this aspect."
"Don't forget in the past there was a game when I was very upset but with the players we have an honest relationship. They know that I like to tell them everything that is true and not a good lie because I want to improve my players.
"I think there is a good connection, good relationship with me and the players because the players trust me, but especially me and the staff we trust a lot to them.
"Now we have to continue in this way. Rest but at the same time we have to prepare the game against Brighton. Brighton won against Arsenal, is a really good team and if we win here and then don't win Saturday you cancel a bit the positive thing you did. For this reason we rest one day then our focus has to be for the next game."
Conte has knitted Tottenham Hotspur together again which is no mean feat after the tattered mess it was left in. It's no coincidence that newcomers such as Kulusevski and Romero have both spoken about their love for the north London club already and how at home they feel and it does make you wonder what he can do with more new faces he wants.
There are seven matches to go and anything can still happen, but you can tell that the Spurs fans travelling back from Birmingham on Saturday believe again.
The trains back to London were full of singing supporters, all proud of their team again and they are dreaming of what a Lilywhite future under Conte might look like.
Conte will not allow any talk of what comes next though. It's all about now and the final push.
