West Brom: Emmanuel Adebayor scored his fourth goal in six days for Tottenham as Harry Redknapp's side kept up the pressure for a Champions League spot by beating West Brom 3-1 on Saturday in the Premier League.
Tottenham's club-record fifth straight Premier League win came despite West Brom taking an early lead at the Hawthorns through Youssouf Mulumbu's header. Tottenham leveled through Adebayor after his initial penalty kick had been parried by Ben Foster.
Jermain Defoe, who earnt a recall in place of injured Rafael van der Vaart, struck his seventh goal of the season with nine minutes remaining. Defoe beat Foster with a low drive from a flick by Adebayor after the Baggies defence back-tracked. Defoe then had another close-range attempt deflected wide before Adebayor, on target twice against Aston Villa on Monday, grabbed his second goal off a pass from Gareth Bale in injury time.
Tottenham have now picked up 28 points from a 10-game unbeaten league run.
Spurs always threatened when they pushed forward as Albion ran out of steam and were unable to maintain the high tempo performance which served them well in the opening half. Adebayor was a constant menace, while midfielder Scott Parker was more of an influence in the final 45 minutes.
Foster looked unconvincing when fumbling a low 30-yard drive from Sandro around the post. But after 10 minutes Mulumbu put Albion ahead with his first goal of the season. Zoltan Gera turned the ball back to Steven Reid, whose cross was met by the unmarked Mulumbu, who glanced a header past Brad Friedel into the corner of the net.
After 26 minutes Adebayor put Tottenham level with his sixth goal of the season. Referee Lee Probert awarded a penalty after Aaron Lennon was pulled back by Nicky Shorey, the third penalty West Brom have conceded in their last three home games. Adebayor's spot-kick was blocked by Foster but the on-loan Manchester City striker converted the rebound and then put the result out of doubt in injury time.
In other matches on Saturday, Everton rose to eighth place as Marouane Fellaini and substitute Apostolos Vellios scored second-half goals for a 2-0 win at 10-man Bolton Bolton to record back-to-back victories for the first time in the Premier League this season. Bolton centreback David Wheater was shown a straight red card in the 20th minute for a challenge on Diniyar Bilyaletdinov at the Reebok Stadium.
Meanwhile, Norwich trailed the Toffees only on goal difference after a 2-1 win over Queens Park Rangers. Grant Holt came off the substitutes' bench to score the winner as Norwich ended a run of four Premier League games without a victory. Russell Martin gave Norwich the lead after 15 minutes. QPR reacted well, though, and Luke Young slotted home a deserved equalizer from a tight angle when a speculative drive by Jamie Mackie came back off the post and into his path.
At the other end of the table, Wigan beat Sunderland 2-1 and were replaced at the bottom of the standings by Blackburn, who lost 3-1 at Stoke.
Franco Di Santo scored in injury time to give Wigan their first away win - and only their second overall - at Sunderland. Defender Wes Brown was caught in possession by James McArthur, who squared for Di Santo to shoot into an empty net. Earlier, Sebastian Larsson had fired Sunderland into an eighth-minute lead at the Stadium of Light. Jordi Gomez equalized from the penalty spot before the interval after Victor Moses had gone down under Larsson's challenge.
Wigan moved up to 19th place and joined Bolton on nine points, with Blackburn slipping to last place.
Rory Delap put Stoke ahead in the 28th minute with a header to the far post from Jermaine Pennant's flat free kick, and Glenn Whelan made it 2-0 with a low shot that took two deflections on its way into the net. Peter Crouch further extended Stoke's lead 14 minutes later following some poor defending by the visitors, who still have not won in the league since their single victory over Arsenal more than two months ago. Ruben Rochina got a goal back for Blackburn with four minutes remaining.
Rovers manager Steve Kean has now won just six of 34 league matches with the club and, despite signing an improved contract this week, has been widely criticized by fans, with the team stranded in the bottom three.
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