Eriksen brace gets Spurs back in the groove
Christian Eriksen scored twice as Tottenham Hotspur revitalised their
Champions League push by coming from behind to convincingly beat
Sunderland 4-1 in the Premier League on Saturday.
With Tottenham winless in three games in 2016 and Sunderland chasing a
third straight league win, it threatened to be a fiddly afternoon for
Mauricio Pochettino’s side at White Hart Lane.
They fell behind to Patrick van Aanholt’s 40th-minute goal, but
Eriksen equalised within two minutes before second-half goals from Mousa
Dembele, Eriksen and Harry Kane, from the spot, secured victory.
Spurs provisionally opened up a four-point lead over fifth-place West
Ham United in the fourth and final Champions League qualifying berth
and closed to within four points of the summit.
Sam Allardyce’s Sunderland drop one place to 19th and remain a point from safety.
Allardyce awarded a league debut to goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and
the 21-year-old was immediately in the thick of the action, plunging to
his left to palm a 25-yard shot from Kane around the post.
Determined to atone for recent disappointments, Spurs set up camp
inside the Sunderland half and Dele Alli should have put them ahead when
he blazed over after Danny Rose’s shot bounced into his path off Kane.
Erik Lamela drilled a shot across goal and narrowly wide, while
Kieran Trippier just failed to pick out Alli with a volleyed cross from
the right.
Sunderland had not had a sniff at the other end, but five minutes
before half-time they went ahead as Adam Johnson played a glorious pass
inside Alli and Van Aanholt beat Hugo Lloris at his near post.
Their lead was to last just 91 seconds.
A neat one-touch move involving Kane, Alli and Eriksen culminated in
Kane seeing a shot blocked by Pickford, but Eriksen slammed the rebound
goalwards and Lee Cattermole, covering on the line, could only knee the
ball into the roof of the net.
Former Spurs striker Jermain Defoe squandered a chance to restore
Sunderland’s lead when he rolled a tame free-kick straight at Lloris,
while Pickford parried from Eriksen at the other end.
Defoe lashed a shot into the side-netting early in the second half,
but after Alli had headed wide from Lamela’s cross and Kane had seen a
shot turned behind by Pickford, Spurs went in front in the 59th minute.
From a deep corner, Rose was denied by Pickford, but Dembele picked
up the loose ball, stepped inside two defenders and drove a low shot
inside the right-hand upright with his left foot.
Jan Kirchhoff came on to make his Sunderland debut shortly before
Dembele’s goal. The German centre-back quickly found himself centre of
attention, but it was for all the wrong reasons.
The former Bayern Munich man made the laziest of attempts to block a
hopeful left-foot shot from Danish playmaker Eriksen and the ball struck
him on the thigh before looping over the soaring Pickford.
Nine minutes later, after Pickford had denied Kane again, Kirchhoff
was penalised for a late challenge on Rose inside the box and Kane swept
the penalty into the bottom-left corner for his 15th goal of the
season.