Tottenham Hotspur moved into the Premier League top-four after a second-half blitz of goals from Matt Doherty, Son Heung-min, Emerson Royal and Steven Bergwijn fired them to an emphatic 5-1 win over Newcastle United at home on Sunday.
Much of the first half was played in Newcastle territory but Spurs failed to find a way through their opponents before the away side grabbed a surprise lead in the 39th minute through Fabian Schar, who drilled home a low free kick past Hugo Lloris.
Newcastle’s lead, however, lasted only four minutes when Ben Davies got ahead of his marker to meet a delightful Son cross to level the game and bring to life a dour half that had initially promised little.
Spurs hit the front almost immediately after the restart when wing back Doherty scored with a diving header from a dangerous Harry Kane cross before Son doubled the their advantage in the 54th minute as he finished off a sweeping team move.
Newcastle made a double switch just before the hour-mark, bringing on Jacob Murphy and Bruno Guimaraes, but Spurs heaped more misery on the visitors as Emerson and substitute Bergwijn added two more goals to complete the rout.
Spurs are now level on 54 points with Arsenal but their north London neighbours can leapfrog them back into fourth place when they travel to Crystal Palace on Monday. Newcastle are 15th with 31 points, nine clear of the relegation zone.
West Ham United rode defender Aaron Cresswell’s brilliant free kick and forward Jarrod Bowen’s second-half strike to seal a 2-1 win over 10-man Everton at the London Stadium.
Bowen stroked the winner into the net in the 58th minute after Michail Antonio had his effort saved, but relegation-threatened Everton only had themselves to blame as Alex Iwobi had gifted possession to David Moyes’ side in the build-up.
The goal marked a memorable return for Bowen from a right heel injury that had ruled him out of the last four games and the 25-year-old, who has scored nine goals and provided eight assists this season, was delighted.
“That’s what you want when you have been out. It has been four weeks. The time has been annoying but to come back into the starting eleven and get the three points, I don’t think you can ask for more,” Bowen told Sky Sports.
“We knew they would come out chasing the game, it was just about dealing with it. They got the goal and it was a kick in the teeth. It’s about the reaction and we showed it.”
Earlier, boyhood Liverpool fan Cresswell heaped the misery on their 17th-placed Merseyside rivals in the 32nd minute as he curled the ball into the top right corner to make it 1-0 after Bowen drew a foul from Mason Holgate in a promising position.
“It was a great feeling to do that,” Cresswell told BBC.
Holgate, a late addition to the Everton team after Donny van de Beek’s injury during the warm-up, made it 1-1 after the break with his first league goal of the season although his shot took a big deflection to go past goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.
Everton were reduced to 10 men when skipper Michael Keane was shown his second yellow card for a lunging tackle on Antonio, leaving Frank Lampard’s side facing an even more daunting task for more than 25 minutes.
West Ham can now look forward to Thursday’s Europa League quarter-final first-leg clash at home to Lyon, while Everton visit fellow strugglers Burnley on Wednesday.
