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.
And Harry Kane converted a penalty after Kirchhoff fouled Danny Rose.
Tottenham move a point behind third-placed Manchester City before Manuel Pellegrini’s side play Crystal Palace at 15:00 GMT, while Sunderland remain in the Premier League relegation places.
Spurs again come on strong in second half
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. 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.
Debutant 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.”
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.
–
By: BBC