Berbatov bags brace as Spurs thrash sorry West Ham 4-0
Tottenham beat West Ham 4-0 in comfortable Premier League victory
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Sunday, 09, Mar 2008 06:19
Dimitar Berbatov scored twice as Tottenham Hotspur inflicted a third consecutive 4-0 defeat upon ten-man West Ham.
The Bulgarian's two first-half headers sent Spurs on their way to the comprehensive victory and closed the gap between them and West Ham, who had Luis Boa Morte sent off, to five points in the Premier League.
Second-half goals from Gilberto and Darren Bent put gloss on the scoreline, which puts more pressure on Alan Curbishley.
Spurs had suffered a 4-1 mauling at Birmingham in their last league match, while PSV had inflicted a 1-0 Uefa Cup upset during the week.
The visitors arrived in worse form, however, having lost their last two games 4-0 to Liverpool and Chelsea.
From the early signs, it looked as if Curbishley's team would rectify that run of results at White Hart Lane.
Paul Robinson's goal led a charmed life in the opening exchanges, with Freddie Ljungberg and Dean Ashton going close before Boa Morte and Bobby Zamora peppered the Spurs backline.
Juande Ramos' side showed the Hammers how to do it when Berbatov headed home from Tom Huddlestone's right-wing free-kick with barely ten minutes on the clock.
Three minutes later the striker had doubled his and his team's tally for the day in a carbon copy of the opener.
Again West Ham failed to prevent Berbatov from getting on the end of a Huddlestone set piece, which this time arrived from the left.
Former Derby midfielder Huddlestone had a chance to get his own name on the scoresheet soon after, but he fluffed his lines from Aaron Lennon's cross.
The afternoon got worse for West Ham when Boa Morte – who should have seen red against Chelsea last weekend – was sent off for a second bookable offence after blundering into Lennon.
West Ham, who had started the day eight points ahead of Spurs in tenth place in the Premier League, struggled to make any impression in their opponent's half after the restart, with the home team dominating possession.
The inevitable third Tottenham goal did not arrive until five minutes from full-time however, when Brazilian midfielder Gilberto made amends for his mistake in Thursday's PSV defeat by finishing Pascal Chimbonda's cross after Lennon had left it for him.
Substitute Darren Bent heaped more misery on his former boss in injury time when he headed home Alan Hutton's cross.
In Sunday's other 15:00 GMT Premier League kickoff, Everton defeated Sunderland 1-0 in a scrappy game.
England striker Andrew Johnson was awarded the match's only goal after diverting Mikel Arteta's cross past Craig Gordon on 55 minutes.
The win puts Everton back on level points with archrivals Liverpool, while Sunderland remain in 16th place, just two points above the drop-zone.