Southampton opened the scoring after just 13 minutes through Adam Lalana. The England international turned smartly on a pass from Danny Fox before moving into space and driving a shot low and past Hugo Lloris.

Spurs hit back when their two strikers for the day combined brilliantly. Emmanuel Adebayor played a perfectly weighted ball out to the left wing for Roberto Soldado to run on to. The Spaniard then returned the ball with a perfect cross, which Adebayor then finished off with an acrobatic leap and volley.

Southampton could claim to have the better of the game in the first 30 minutes, with Adam Lallana in particular exerting a strong influence on the play.

On 55 minutes Spurs were ahead thanks to an own goal from Jos Hooiveld.Hooiveld was caught out when he tried to clear a Danny Rose pass into the box but instead sent the ball into his own net.

Spurs weren’t in front for long though. Adam Lallana was the architect of the equaliser on the hour and Rickie Lambert benefited from a dose of expert vision from Lallana, when the 25 year old timed his run perfectly to get behind the Spurs defence and draw Lloris from his goal. Once he had pulled the shape from the Spurs defence Lallana then laid the ball back into Lambert’s path and with an open goal beckoning the finish was routine.

Spurs and Adebayor were to strike again soon after. Just 4 minutes later Emmanuel Adebayor capitalised on poor defending in the Southampton box to shoot low past Paulo Gazzaniga for his second of the game.

Southampton grew ever more desperate in their hunt for an equaliser and in the final 10 minutes had abandoned their patient passing approach in favour of a more direct style. They launched crossed in to the Spurs box and poured forward but it was never enough.