With Robbie Keane currently sidelined by his own knee problem, Jol may have only Dimitar Berbatov and Mido at his disposal as he attempts to bounce back from a demoralising defeat.

He said: “Robbie Keane is still injured, so if Jermain is not there, our little strikers are not involved. But we have got Mido and Berbatov, so we have still got two strikers for the two positions.”

Jol chose to replace Defoe with midfielder Danny Murphy at St James’ Park, leaving Berbatov to fight alone up front.

The Bulgarian caused problems for the Newcastle defence throughout, but passed up two excellent chances, and that was to prove costly.

Mido came off the bench as a 66th-minute replacement for Didier Zokora, although with his side trailing 3-1, there was little he could do to make a significant difference.

The defeat on Tyneside left Spurs four points adrift of sixth-placed Portsmouth and erased the feelgood factor created by their first league away win of the season the previous weekend.

With Liverpool due at White Hart Lane before the New Year’s Day trip to Portsmouth, a return to winning ways against Villa is a must if hopes of a top-four finish are to remain on course.

Jol, who was satisfied with many aspects of his side’s display at Newcastle, is happy to have an early opportunity to erase the memory of that defeat.

He said: “That is good. At home, we know we are different. Away from home, we had a win last week. We played compact and we scored goals and we could have scored goals today.

“There is a little bit of difference between home games and away games, but we are not far off. We are so close and if we had won today, we would have been closer. But we are still in a good position.”

The game will also give England keeper Paul Robinson a chance to atone for a poor day in the north-east.

Jol absolved him of responsibility for Kieron Dyer’s opening goal, but he will not have enjoyed the replays of Scott Parker’s 34th-minute strike, which came after he had spilled James Milner’s free-kick.