Spurs climb to third as hot streak continues

Tottenham 3 Reading 1

Tottenham were caught cold in the fourth minute when Pavel Pogrebnyak scored in his second successive game, but the lead lasted just over four minutes.

The impressive Gylfi Sigurdsson crossed for Michael Dawson to score his first league goal since February 2011 and Spurs then took control of the game in the second half thanks in no small part to the influence of Lennon.

With Gareth Bale out of the team through suspension, Lennon was given the chance to take centre stage and he grasped it with both hands.

The England winger, who gave veteran defender Ian Harte no end of trouble all afternoon, crossed to allow Emmanuel Adebayor put Spurs ahead in the second half and Clint Dempsey’s deflected effort 11 minutes from time sealed the win.

Villas-Boas, who struggled to win over the supporters at the start of the season, begins 2013 ahead of Chelsea – the club who sacked him in March.

The Blues have two games in hand but Villas-Boas will be encouraged about his team’s chances of making the top four this term by the way they have played of late.

Villas-Boas admitted after that he was pleased to see Emmanuel Adebayor get his name on the scoresheet.

“It was important for him today to score,” he said. “He had a couple of situations recently against Sunderland and Villa, it was important for him to get back into the goals.

“Strikers live off goals, it was important for him to score. You see him trying like Jermain Defoe, Clint, and how decisive he is also.

“They want to get in the box, they breathe off scoring goals and it will give him a boost for sure.”

It was widely believed that Adebayor would stay at White Hart Lane as opposed to linking up with Togo ahead of the forthcoming African Nations Cup.

But Villas-Boas said he was still unsure over whether he would lose the former Manchester City striker in a fortnight’s time and that the decision lies squarely with the player.

“It’s a vulnerable situation, anything can happen,” he said. “I’ve told you the player can still go, I understand it is still a possibility.

“It was always his choice, I’m not going to put pressure on him. We’ve left it to the player to decide. If the player wants to go, we respect the African Nations Cup.”

Reading boss Brian McDermott saw his side put in a valiant effort against an in-form Spurs side and reckons Villas-Boas is building a good squad at White Hart Lane.

“I couldn’t fault our players today,” he said. “The discipline of the team, you have to come here with a certain way of playing and I thought we were going to get something today.”

McDermott bemoaned his side’s luck and did not feel they deserved to lose 3-1.

“We had three opportunities at 2-1, if we’d got the second goal it could have gone either way,” he said.

“It is disappointing that one of the chances didn’t go in, they were good opportunities – it wasn’t really a 3-1 game, that didn’t really tell the story of the game.”

TOTTENHAM: Lloris, Walker, Dawson, Vertonghen, Naughton, Lennon, Sandro, Dembele (Parker 69), Sigurdsson (Dempsey 75), Adebayor (Livermore 88), Defoe.

READING: Federici, Gunter, Pearce, Mariappa, Harte, Kebe, Karacan (Robson-Kanu 57), Leigertwood, Guthrie, McAnuff (Le Fondre 73), Pogrebnyak (Hunt 84).

Referee: Howard Webb