Spurs will want to put the West Ham result behind them as quickly as possible, starting with this match at Villa Park. In order to do so, they can use the positivity gathered by their players during their stints with their respective national teams during the international break. Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris kept two clean sheets for France first in a 6-0 friendly drubbing of Australia and then in their final Word Cup qualifying match a 3-0 victory against Finland to ensure a play-off place. Belgian trio Jan Vertonghen, Moussa Dembele and Nacer Chadli helped their country win their group and ensure automatic qualification for Brazil 2014 with a win in Croatia last Friday (Villa's Christian Benteke was an unused substitute in the 1-1 home draw with Wales on Tuesday). Gylfi Sigurdsson was part of the Iceland team which earned a play-off place something which is a massive achievement in itself for Iceland with a 2-0 win against Cyprus and a 1-1 draw in Norway. Christian Eriksen was a part of the Denmark team who, although they failed to qualify, had two good results a 2-2 draw with Italy and a 6-0 win against Malta. Vlad Chiriches is in a similar position his Romania side did not qualify, but in the match he played they won very convincingly, defeating Andorra 4-0 away from home. Erik Lamela added two more caps to his previous tally of three, playing in both of Argentina's World Cup qualifiers a 3-1 victory against Peru and a narrow 3-2 defeat against Uruguay. Argentina finished top of the South American qualifying group to earn a place in Brazil. Paulinho also played in both of Brazil's 2-0 friendly wins against South Korea and Zambia. Most high profile of all, however, Andros Townsend earned his first two caps for England in their victories against Montenegro (4-1) and Poland (2-0) to ensure England's safe passage to the World Cup. Townsend scored on his debut against Montenegro and earned himself the Man of the Match award a match in which Kyle Walker also played, earning himself a yellow card to miss out on the match against Poland. Jermain Defoe was also a part of the squad. Townsend will now be expected to take his performances up a notch in the Premier League. Townsend, along with captain Michael Dawson, has also agreed a contract extension with the club, which should increase the positive mood even more so. If Spurs use all of that as a means to influence their confidence levels, rather than the anomaly that was the West Ham defeat, there is no reason they can't get back on track with a win in Birmingham.
