Hutton ruled out for Villa with ankle injury

Hutton's time at Villa Park appeared to be coming to an end when he was isolated from Villa's first-team squad and he has spent time on loan at Nottingham Forest, Mallorca and Bolton

Wanderers over the last two years.

However, the 29-year-old has undergone a resurgence, starting eight of Villa's nine Premier League games this season and signing a new contract at Villa Park.

The full-back will not feature against former club Tottenham and West Ham, though, and is a doubt for Scotland's Euro 2016 qualifier with the Republic of Ireland and friendly encounter with

England later this month.

"The Scotland games will be touch and go for Alan, which is disappointing for him," Lambert said.

"He sprained his ankle in training before the QPR game and we're looking at a fortnight, depending on how quickly he heals.

"He was part of a back four that had only conceded one goal in the first four games and he's been excellent."

Villa host Spurs on Saturday looking to arrest an alarming slump that has seen the club lose five straight games without scoring a goal.

The downturn in fortunes has coincided with Lambert signing a new four-year contract, but the Scot is confident the team will end their rut sooner rather than later.

"We've had a bad run of fixtures but I've no doubts we will come through it," he added.

"It's a challenging period but we've got the players to score goals and win games."