Tottenham Hotspur 4-1 Sunderland

Christian Eriksen has scored five times against Sunderland, more than any other Premier League opponenent

Christian Eriksen scored twice as Tottenham maintained their challenge for a top-four finish and deepened Sunderland's relegation worries.

Patrick van Aanholt gave the Black Cats the lead against the run of play but Eriksen levelled as Lee Cattermole failed to clear on the goalline.

Mousa Dembele fired Spurs ahead before Eriksen's 25-yard shot deflected in off Sunderland debutant Jan Kirchhoff.

Harry Kane then converted a penalty after Kirchhoff fouled Danny Rose.

Tottenham remain fourth in the Premier League, while Sunderland drop a position to 19th following Newcastle's win over West Ham.

Relive Tottenham's win over Sunderland

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Spurs again come on strong in second half

Tottenham had seven players with an average position in Sunderland's half, while the visitors could only manage two in Spurs' half - Jermain Defoe and Jeremain Lens (direction of play is up for both teams in the graphic)

Although routine in the end, it was an important victory for Tottenham having lost two of their previous three home league games to fall away slightly from the leading trio of Arsenal, Leicester and Manchester City.

Mauricio Pochettino's side are now unbeaten in their past 12 league games against Sunderland, although in 11 of them they have been level at half-time.

It was difficult to fathom how that was the case on Saturday as they totally dominated the opening 45 minutes, enjoying 70% possession and 15 shots to the visitors' three.

Dutch left-back Van Aanholt, who netted against Swansea on Wednesday, beat Hugo Lloris at his near post from Adam Johnson's pass to give Sunderland an underserved lead.

Spurs were level within 91 seconds as Lee Cattermole could only deflect Eriksen's shot into the roof of the net on the goalline after Sunderland goalkeeper Jordan Pickford - making his Premier League debut - saved from Kane.

Dembele's low left-foot shot gave Spurs a 2-1 lead and they noticeably relaxed from that point, stretching away thanks to Eriksen's second and Kane's 12th league goal of the season.

Kirchhoff caught out

Jan Kirchhoff joined Sunderland from Bayern Munich for about £750,000

Despite being on the back foot throughout, Sunderland had looked relatively secure for almost an hour and occasionally threatened on the break.

Buoyed by successive league wins over Aston Villa and Swansea, they largely restricted Spurs to shots from outside the box in the first half.

Their failure to protect their lead until half-time proved costly, although former Spurs striker Jermain Defoe - who had scored five in his previous two games - had a chance to restore it early in the second half.

He and Adam Johnson raced clear of the home defence but the counter-attack lost momentum and the 33-year-old fired into the side-netting.

Centre-half Kirchhoff, signed from Bayern Munich, had only made one appearance this season prior to joining Sunderland this month.

He struggled after coming on in the 58th minute, with the foul on Rose for the penalty demonstrating how much he was off the pace.

Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce said of Kirchhoff: "It's a bit risky signing players from abroad in January but we have to take that risk. Hopefully he learns from today."

'Outstanding' Pickford makes fine Premier League debut

Sunderland-born Jordan Pickford joined the club aged eight

Sunderland keeper Pickford spent the first half of the season on loan at Championship club Preston and Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce said it would have been wrong not to recall him as he "made such an outstanding impact".

Allardyce hopes he can follow England Under-21 international predecessors Joe Hart and Jack Butland in graduating to the full national team and, despite conceding four goals, he made an impressive league debut, replacing Vito Mannone.

The 21-year-old, who has been on loan at six different clubs over the past four years, made superb saves at full stretch in the first half to deny Kane and Eriksen.

Pickford made further stops from Kane and Rose in the second period and was not at fault for any of the goals.

Man of the match - Christian Eriksen

Christian Eriksen may have had some help from Sunderland players with both of his goals but he was impressive throughout with 89% passing accuracy and six chances created

Manager reaction

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino told BBC Sport: "It was a good response to the Leicester defeat. I'm very pleased. We need to be patient.

"We had a lot of shots on target - their goalkeeper was fantastic. I feel very pleased in the last few games. The belief is fantastic. We have a very good, strong squad - today was a good example."

Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce told BBC Sport: "Our players put themselves in one fantastic position and then in the space of a minute conceded. It's one of the reasons we ended up losing.

"If we came in at half-time 1-0 up we could have built on that. It was a really sloppy thing to do. We ran out of legs in the end. In the last quarter, physically we were tiring.

"I changed the shape but that didn't work. The scoreline, 4-1, looks more comfortable than it was."

On Jordan Pickford: "Playing a keeper at a young age is not an easy decision to make. But I thought he handled it well. He might not play too many more games this season because Vito Mannone has done a fantastic job. The rest of the team up to 65 minutes were doing the job right but in the last 20 they failed miserably."

The stats you need to know

• Christian Eriksen has now scored in all four of his Premier League appearances against Sunderland (five goals).

• Harry Kane has now scored 11 goals in his past 13 Premier League appearances.

• Each of Sunderland's three goalkeepers (Costel Pantilimon, Mannone and Pickford) have conceded four goals in their first Premier League appearance of 2015-16.

What's next?

Tottenham travel to Leicester for an FA Cup third-round replay on Wednesday (19:45 GMT), which is live on BBC One, before a league trip to Crystal Palace next Saturday (15:00 GMT). Sunderland host fellow strugglers Bournemouth on the same day (15:00 GMT).