A Gareth Bale brace saw Tottenham defeat Queens Park Rangers 3-1 at White Hart Lane to move into fifth place in the Premier League.
Bale opened the scoring before Rafael Van Der Vaart chimed in with a goal, before QPR substitute Jay Bothroyd breathed some life into the game with a second-half strike.
But Bale extinguished the visitors’ hopes with his second of the match to seal three points for Harry Redknapp’s side.
After early pressure from Spurs, the visitors’ first chance came after a good passing move ended with Heidur Helguson just inside the area, but the Icelandic international could not direct the ball towards Brad Friedel’s goal.
Redknapp’s men then went in front straight after that chance as the goal kick by Friedel was knocked on by Emmanuel Adebayor to Aaron Lennon, who found the onrushing Bale before the Welshman slotted past Paddy Kenny in the QPR goal.
Spurs continued to dominate the game and were ultimately rewarded as Van Der Vaart latched onto a loose ball and placed it beyond Kenny for his fifth goal in as many Premier League games.
The hosts could have killed the game off minutes into the second period as Van Der Vaart found space on the edge of the area before his drive was clawed away by Kenny.
QPR found a lifeline just after the hour as a corner from the right was knocked back into the danger zone, with Bothroyd on hand to knock the ball home from close range.
Kenny once again showed his worth for the Loftus Road side, making two outstanding saves from Adebayor and Bale to keep his team in the game.
Spurs eventually got their third after a superb one-two between Lennon and Bale ended with the latter curling a shot around the helpless Kenny to restore his side’s two-goal cushion.
With 15 minutes left Spurs should have killed the game off as Lennon showed great skill to find Adebayor inside the box, but the Togolese striker failed to find the target from point-blank range.
QPR had a series of chances inside injury time, but they failed to find the target as Spurs ran out comfortable winners.
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