Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp wants Roman Pavlyuchenko to stay

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp is adamant he wants striker Roman Pavlyuchenko to stay at the club.

The 30-year-old has not started a Premier League game this term but came off the bench to hit the winner against Sunderland and send Spurs up to third.

Redknapp said: "I'd like to keep him. People say Pav is going and we're looking for a striker but it is difficult to find anyone better."

Meanwhile Redknapp fears injured winger Aaron Lennon will be out for "weeks".

The England international tore a hamstring against the Black Cats, being forced out of the action after 27 minutes, and will definitely miss Thursday's crucial match against Chelsea.

"Lennon felt the tear. He has no chance for Thursday," Redknapp said. "He felt it go. It will be weeks if it's a tear."

Gareth Bale [sprained ankle] and Jermain Defoe [hamstring] could both recover after being forced to sit out Sunday's win.

And although Lennon's injury is a huge blow to Redknapp, it could offer hope to Pavlyuchenko, the man who replaced Lennon against the Black Cats.

The Russian has been regularly linked with a move away from White Hart Lane when the January transfer window opens.

Redknapp said: "I understand Pav needs to play and wants to play but if he keeps scoring goals he will keep playing.

"Technically he's a fantastic player with two great feet and he can score. He is top drawer when he's at it. He's just been unlucky, we have other top players in Defoe, [Rafael] van der Vaart and [Emmanuel] Adebayor.

"We are very fortunate, we have four good strikers and I would like to keep them all here.

"He couldn't get better treatment than he gets here. He's at a great club. If he's not playing he's always on the bench - it's not as if he's isolated from the first team. He's very much part of it."

Redknapp was thrilled with the way his side dealt with their injury problems to see off Sunderland.

He said: "It was a tough game and we had one or two setbacks before the game, losing Gareth Bale and Jermain Defoe, and then we lose Aaron very early when he looked like he was bang on form. We had to shuffle around a bit so it was real satisfying performance.

"They were dangerous on the counter-attack and we always had to be aware of that. But once we scored we really started to play and we had a spell where we played as we can play and we got the result in the end."