Tottenham Hotspur ended a five-match winless streak in the Premier League by beating Swansea City 3-1 at White Hart Lane, and as a result moved level on points with third-placed Arsenal.
Spurs took the lead on 19 minutes as Rafael van der Vaart converted a stylish, sidefooted effort from just outside the area after a sliding Ashley Williams had cut out Gareth Bale’s near-post cross.
But Swansea kept playing their impressive football and it was not a surprise when Gylfi Sigurdsson equalised on 59 minutes, however, hitting a bouncing volley into the bottom-left corner from the edge of the area following Wayne Routledge’s lay-off.
But Spurs did not buckle under the pressure and regained the lead with 17 minutes remaining as Emmanuel Adebayor rose highest to head in Van Der Vaart’s corner. The on-loan striker then nodded in Aaron Lennon’s 86th-minute cross to complete his double and give the Spurs their first league win since 11 February.
That is quite amazing when you think about it. Spurs went six weeks without winning in league, and still stayed in the top four.
In the early kick-off, two goals from Papiss Demba Cissé helped Newcastle United beat Liverpool 2-0. With the win, Newcastle moved level on points with fifth-placed Chelsea, five points behind Spurs.
Cissé’s back-post header from Hatem Ben Arfa’s cross gave the hosts a 19th-minute advantage and he rounded Pepe Reina to to add his second close to the hour mark.
It was not a happy return to Tyneside for Andy Carroll. The former Newcastle striker, making his first return to St. James Park since his £35million transfer to Liverpool 14 months ago, was booked for diving in the first half when trying to win a penalty.
Liverpool were incredibly poor, and their day got even worse when Pepe Reina got sent off with 10 minutes to go for head-butting Toon defender James Perch. The red card will mean that Reina will now miss the FA Cup semi-final in two weeks against Everton.
How bad is Liverpool playing at the moment? Well according to OptaLiverpool since Luis Suarez returned Liverpool have picked up 8 points from their last 12 games: 2-2-8. 8 points out of 36 possible.
The last time Liverpool picked up fewer points in a 12-match period was in 1954.
