Christian Eriksen scored one goal and set up two more as Tottenham recovered from an early defensive howler to rout Sunderland 5-1, leaving the visitor rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table.
Tottenham put aside speculation about the manager Tim Sherwood’s future and the early mistake to produce a comfortable victory at White Hart Lane to stay in the hunt for a European place.
Tottenham gifted Sunderland the opener as Vlad Chiriches collected a poor return ball from goalkeeper Hugo Lloris and played a terrible square ball straight into the path of Lee Cattermole, who slotted home his first Sunderland goal.
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The host equalised when Emmanuel Adebayor bundled home Eriksen’s cross and Harry Kane then prodded home his first Premier League goal to give Spurs a deserved lead.
Eriksen netted the third before Adebayor tucked home his second and substitute Gylfi Sigurdsson struck home in stoppage time. Sunderland manager Gus Poyet says that his side need ‘a miracle’ to avoid relegation after the thrashing left it seven points from safety.
“I think we need a miracle,” the Uruguayan said after Monday’s game. “We need something unique, a shock, because if not I cannot see it coming.”
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Terrible run Sunderland has taken just one point from its last seven games. Now bottom of the table, the beaten League Cup finalists host fifth-place Everton on Saturday before embarking upon daunting back-to-back trips to title-chasing Manchester City and Chelsea.
“I don’t change my opinion,” Poyet added. “I am very honest and I know where I am. It doesn’t matter if it was five minutes ago or if you asked me on Friday. “I am realistic, when you look at the table and the games that we have got left about how many we need to win.”
The result: Tottenham 5 (Adebayor 28, 86, Kane 59, Eriksen 78, Sigurdsson 90+2) bt Sunderland 1 (Cattermole 17).