Tottenham 3 Reading 1: Clint Dempsey wraps up win as Spurs go third

Spurs have taken 10 points over Christmas and, once they got a foothold in the match, it was a fairly routine victory with Mousa Dembele, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Aaron Lennon all shining.

Reading got off to the perfect stuff. Pavel Pogrebnyak’s explosive run ended with him being upended on the edge of the area. Ian Harte’s cracker of a free kick hit the bar, rebounding to Pogrebnyak who headed past the prostrate Hugo Lloris after just three minutes.

Spurs were back on level terms within six minutes. Michael Dawson met Sigurdsson’s corner with a champagne header that popped Reading’s bubble.

From that moment on Spurs dominated the first half with Reading goalkeeper Adam Federici producing a series of saves to keep the scores level.

Andre Villas-Boas’s men wasted no time in taking the lead after the restart. In the 51st minute, the sprightly Lennon chipped the ball up invitingly into the box. Emmanuel Adebayor seemed to hang in the air like a basketball player before nodding home.

Reading finally pushed forward in search of an equaliser. Pogrebnyak and Alex Pearce went close before the game was put to bed by substitute Clint Dempsey, who scored with a deflected effort.

Defeat leaves Reading deep in the mire and facing a Herculean task to avoid relegation.