Marseille rejoined Ligue 1 leaders Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon on 38 points with a 1-0 win over St Etienne on Sunday.
superbly headed home Rod Fanni's cross on the stroke of half-time to earn Marseille a fourth victory in their last five league matches.
St Etienne, in contrast, have now earned just two points from their last five matches and have gone from looking like genuine title contenders to a side stuck in mid-table, 11 points adrift of the pacesetters.
Valenciennes. meanwhile, bounced back from successive defeats with a hard-fought 2-1 win over 10-man Evian.
Goals from Gregory Pujol and Jose Saez saw the hosts to a victory that means they will spend the winter break inside the top six.
Saber Khelifa equalised for Evian in the first half but they had no response to Valenciennes' second goal, which came just moments after the visitors had lost Djakaridja Kone to a 71st-minute red card.
In Sunday's other game, Sochaux lost 2-0 at Toulouse to remain stuck in the bottom three heading into the winter break.
Adrien Regattin put the hosts in front in the first half with a superb free-kick and Emmanuel Riviere sealed the win five minutes from time.
Despite the return of fit-again Gareth Bale, Villas-Boas' team rarely threatened Stoke's goal on Saturday, and Asmir Begovic's only important save came in injury time when substitute Gylfi Sigurdsson tested him with a close-range header.
The result means Tottenham head to Aston Villa on Boxing Day outside the Champions League qualification places.
But Villas-Boas remains convinced his team are on course to achieve their objective of a top-four finish.
He said: "I think we have enough to finish top four. It doesn't shift because of one result.
"There's a lot of teams with 30 points so even if the teams get a couple of points the difference is minimal. The Premier League is like that.
"The team that sits third the other day now sits sixth or seventh in the league."
Stoke, meanwhile, are now eight matches unbeaten for the first time since they earned promotion to the Premier League.
Potters boss Tony Pulis, however, is not getting carried away.
"We still need 14 or 15 points to stay up," the Welshman said.
"That will always be our priority - staying up.
"Then we'll try to get a little bit better and better."
Villas-Boas had praise for Stoke after the game.
"I totally respect Stoke," he said.
"What they have achieved this season is tremendous because it gives credit to Tony Pulis' work. You don't expect to play Stoke and for them to take the game easily.
"I admire other types of football. But you have to respect them. It's not easy when you give so much possession to the opponent and you have to defend but all credit to them and their work."
Lambert and Norwich were both suing each other for breach of contract and the issue was due to go before a Premier League tribunal next month, but it has now been resolved.
The Scot left Norwich in the summer after three successful years in which he led the Canaries to successive promotions and 12th place in the Premier League.
Lambert has always believed he did nothing wrong in the sense he was entitled to talk to any interested clubs.
Villa were also adamant that they acted in a proper manner and would have met the terms of Lambert's contract.
The two clubs issued a statement on Sunday evening which read: "Paul Lambert, Norwich City and Aston Villa have agreed settlement in respect of the dispute regarding Paul Lambert's departure from Norwich City.
"Villa will pay Norwich City the original amount as agreed in the contract between Paul Lambert and Norwich City, and Norwich City will pay Paul Lambert the bonus he was entitled to after completion of the 2011/12 season.
"This represents a final settlement of all claims and disputes between the parties. No further comment will be made."
Lambert had been upset when Norwich chairman Alan Bowkett made the dispute public at a fans' forum earlier this season and claimed he had left all of his previous clubs in a similar manner.
But Lambert said before the recent Capital One Cup quarter-final between the clubs that he hoped agreement could be reached in the dispute and that has now happened.
