Tottenham 4-1 Sunderland: Eriksen inspires Spurs comeback

Posted Saturday, January 16, 2016 by Goal.com

Tottenham 4-1 Sunderland: Eriksen inspires Spurs comeback
The Dane was in inspired form as Mauricio Pochettino's men eventually earned a deserved win at White Hart Lane

Tottenham had Christian Eriksen's brace to thank for Saturday's 4-1 victory over Sunderland that put them within four points of the top of the Premier League.

Mauricio Pochettino's men have established themselves as one of the title dark horses this season, but saw their climb temporarily halted by a 1-0 home defeat to rivals Leicester City on Wednesday.

Eager to bounce back against Sunderland, it was instead Sam Allardyce's men who took a surprise lead at White Hart Lane through Patrick van Aanholt.

It fell to Eriksen to level affairs just two minutes later when he prodded in the rebound of Harry Kane's saved effort, before Moussa Dembele put Spurs in the lead for the first time right before the hour mark.
A fortuitous deflection off Jan Kirchhoff handed Eriksen a second 23 minutes from time and the debutant's clumsy foul on Danny Rose allowed Kane to round off the scoring from the spot as Pochettino's side recorded their first league win of 2016.

Making his first Premier League start in north London, Sunderland goalkeeper Jordan Pickford tipped Kane's strike wide four minutes in as Spurs began strongly.

Dele Alli - fresh from agreeing a new contract in midweek - sent an effort over the crossbar after a fortuitous deflection off Rose's strike before a wayward Billy Jones clearance threatened to allow Kane in again.

Pickford was alert to the danger and while the hosts continued to apply pressure through the likes of Kane and Erik Lamela, Sunderland took the lead five minutes before the break.

Adam Johnson's wonderful pass allowed Van Aanholt to finish at the near post and hand the visitors what proved a short-lived lead.

Just two minutes later, Pickford denied Kane one-on-one, only for Eriksen to divert the rebound on target with Cattermole unable to clear it off the line - instead turning the ball into his own net.

Eriksen was initially denied a second when Pickford tipped the Dane's long-range effort wide on the stroke of half-time before, after the break, Sunderland went close when former Spurs favourite Jermain Defoe found the side-netting after a quick break.

After Kirchhoff was introduced, Kane and Rose both tested Pickford but the young goalkeeper could do little about either Dembele or Eriksen's strikes.

After Rose's effort was palmed away, Dembele - one of three Spurs changes from the defeat to Leicester in midweek - cut inside and ghosted past Jones and Jack Rodwell before finding Pickford's bottom left-hand corner.

As Sunderland's hopes of taking anything back to Wearside faded, Eriksen made the most of the space afforded to him to unleash a strike that found the top corner via a deflection of Kirchhoff's leg.

And the former Bayern Munich man rounded off a difficult introduction to Premier League life by fouling Rose, Kane converting from the spot to maintain Spurs' title ambitions.