Harry Kane scores for Spurs during last night's win over Sunderland at the Lane

Published: 8 April, 2014
by DAN CARRIER at White Hart Lane

Premier League
SPURS 5, SUNDERLAND 1

SPURS manager Tim Sherwood did little to quell rumours last night (Monday) that he has five games left in the White Hart Lane dugout and has already been told he will be replaced in the summer.

He saw his side run out 5-1 winners against bottom-of-the-table Sunderland on a day of frenzied speculation that Spurs had told their December-appointed manger his services would no longer be needed at the end of the season.

It was a rumour he refused to comprehensively deny, telling reporters after the game that he wanted to talk about football, not about his situation.

He said: "Frankly, I'd rather talk about the game. This type of speculation does no one any favours. I just have to get on with it. I can't talk about my employment, you'll have to ask my employers about that.”

Tellingly, there was no outright denial that his short tenure would end in May. Sherwood went on to defend his time at the helm and added that there had never been a demand from the chairman to deliver a top-four finish – or be sacked.

He said: “It has been a wonderful opportunity to manage this great club. There has never been any pressure to finish in the top four. It was a case of just go out there and do your best.”

If he does go – and reading between the lines, it seems likely – tonight showed that whoever comes in has two match-winners in the shape of Christian Eriksen and Emmanuel Adebayor. The pair bossed a very poor Sunderland side and got their names on the scoresheet.

However, as so often with Sherwood's Spurs, the team started slowly and went a goal behind in comical fashion on 17 minutes. An innocuous throw-in got Vlad Chiriches and Hugo Lloris in a muddle. The centre-back played a pass across the face of his goal, which Lee Cattermole pounced on. With Lloris out of position, the Sunderland midfielder drove home from distance.

The equaliser came on 27 minutes. Eriksen sent over a teasing, six-yard box cross and Adebayor appeared unseen at the back post to push it over the line with his thigh. It was a case of poor defending from Sunderland as the Dane's pass evaded three static defenders.

The second came on 58, and again through the guile of Eriksen: he pondered on the left until an opening presented itself, then flipped a teasing ball into the danger area which rookie striker Harry Kane merely had to help on its way.

Then it was all Spurs. Eriksen himself helped himself to the third on 77 when he struck from distance, Kane and Adebayor combined to get a fourth on 85 and then substitute Gylfi Sigurdsson finished the rout from close range on 90.

Despite Sunderland battling for their Premiership status, and Spurs locked in a race for the Europa League, it had the air of the dog-end of a disappointing season about it. However, Sherwood will be thankful that his side responded to a tough day and distracted the fans from dug-out gossip – for now, at least.

SPURS: Lloris, Rose, Kaboul, Chiriches, Lennon (Townsend, 83), Paulinho (Veljkovic, 87), Adebayor, Naughton, Chadli (Sigurdsson, 81), Eriksen, Kane.
Attendance: 34,410