Unai Emery has backed Ange Postecoglou to turn things around at Tottenham Hotspur following a 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa in the fourth round of the FA Cup. The Villans cruised past the Lilywhites, who are now out of each of the domestic cup competitions.

Jacob Ramsey broke the deadlock inside the opening minute before Morgan Rogers doubled Aston Villa's lead in the second half. Then, in stoppage time, Mathys Tel pulled one back for Tottenham, marking his full debut with a goal.

Spurs couldn't find an equaliser in the final moments, denting any hope of winning a trophy this season. With the North Londoners out of the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup, the Europa League remains the only viable source of silverware.

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Speaking to reporters after the Tottenham clash, Emery was quizzed on Postecoglou's future. The former Arsenal boss sympathised with his counterpart, attributing the poor results to the wave of injuries at Hotspur Way.

"I can analyse his work last year and the first six months of this season and I really appreciate a lot how Tottenham are playing with their style," said Emery. "Last year they performed fantastic. Of course, every team has their injured players - they have more than normal.

"The potential they can have with every player being available is a little bit lower without them. I think we played a very good match today to stop them. They played well but it was not enough to beat us in this match. When they are going to recover players, they will perform again like they were doing."

Meanwhile, Postecoglou was asked if he still hopes he'll be given time – by Daniel Levy – to turn things around. The Spurs boss said: "I'm not talking about me. People can judge me. They can say I've done a bad job, I'm not up to it or whatever. That's fine.

"What I'm saying is you can't be critical of players or players' performances at this time. Because if you do, then do that with everyone else. Be as critical of other clubs when they've got 9 or 10 or 11 players out. And none of them have, and have to play every week.

"And not for one game. I'm not just saying we had to do this today. We've been doing this since the middle of November and you can't judge performances of these players and critique them on what they've done."

Postecoglou added: "All they've done is given all they can and that's all you can ask for. Me, that's not of interest to me. My responsibility at this football club is this group of players and this team, to get them to play in the manner I want them to and bring us success.

"Whether people think I can do that or not, that's for others to judge. But there's got to be a better appreciation for what a very small group of players have been doing for the last two and a half months. It can't be that people think that's an excuse. That's just not anywhere near close to objective analysis.

"That's just agenda driven stuff. If it's to get rid of me that's fine. Good on ya. Go for it a million times. But in terms of this group of players, what they've given over the past two and half months has been outstanding, it's a credit to them, I can't speak highly enough of them."