Bolton 1-4 Tottenham: Emmanuel Adebayor fires brace as Spurs rout struggling Trotters

The inspirational midfielder made his first appearance at the Reebok seven weeks after his cardiac arrest in the two side's FA Cup tie in March, but it was the visitors who left celebrating as they held on to fourth place despite Newcastle's victory at Chelsea.

A Luka Modric wonder-goal opened the scoring for the visitors on 51 minutes. Nigel Reo-Coker hit back for the home side after the break, but a close-range striker from Rafael van der Vaart and a quick-fire double from Emmanuel Adebayor gave Tottenham the win.

The win could prove to be the perfect end to a crucial 24 hours in the Londoners' season, with Harry Redknapp staying at White Hart Lane following Roy Hodgson's appointment as the new England boss.

Muamba, who said before kick-off that he wished he was in the starting line-up, was given a hero's welcome by both sets of fans on an emotional pre-match appearance, and Bolton could well have used his marshalling qualities to quash the creative efforts of Gareth Bale and van der Vaart, whose quicksilver play tormented the hosts.

Tottenham enjoyed the better of the opening quarter as Bale got into his stride, testing Adam Bogdan from the edge of the box. Moments later the Welshman darted past Dedryck Boyata and David Wheater but no Spurs player was able to convert his tantalising cross.

Bolton almost had the ball in the net 10 minutes before the break when Brad Friedel smothered David N'Gog's snapshot, and less than 60 seconds later Tottenham notched the opener.

Spurs broke away through Adebayor and though Bogdan did well to block van der Vaart's low drive and Wheater deflected Sandro's wild follow-up, the Bolton keeper could do nothing about a perfectly measured strike from Modric, as the playmaker brought down his Dutch teammate's corner and bent a sweet strike into the top corner.

An equaliser almost materialised on the stroke of half-time, but the unchallenged Boyata lashed his waist-high opportunity high over the bar. The full-back made amends five minutes into the second half though, as his right wing throw was flicked on by Kevin Davies to N'Gog, whose sweet backheel fell perfectly for the on-rushing Nigel Reo-Coker to rifle past Friedel.

The goal sparked the Wanderers faithful into life as Bolton enjoyed their best spell of pressure, but two rapid-fire strikes punctured the party atmosphere. First van der Vaart cushioned the ball to Bale on the half-way line and was on the receiving end of the winger's driving run to sweep Spurs back in front, and less than a minute later Adebayor added the third after Aaron Lennon raced clear after van der Vaart and Modric combined in midfield.

Adebayor added the fourth, beating the off-side trap and rounding Bogdan after a slick one-two between van der Vaart and Bale, who almost got the goal his performance deserved in injury time, but Bogdan saved his deflected effort across goal.