Tottenham 3 Charlton 1: Jermain Defoe put his name back in England's World Cup frame by scoring twice in yesterday's win over Charlton Athletic, which was watched by Sven-Goran Eriksson's number two, Tord Grip, from the directors' box.

With the victory Martin Jol's side put breathing space between themselves and Arsenal, who after Saturday's win at Birmingham had moved to within a point of their north London rivals in the battle for fourth place and the Champions League spot that comes with it.

Tottenham are now four points clear, the Gunners having a game in hand at Anfield.

It was only Defoe's third start since November 7th but the 23-year-old has had an increased involvement over the past three weeks because of the absence on African Nations Cup duty of Mido, whom Jol has preferred to play alongside Robbie Keane in attack.

Jol, though, was full of praise for Defoe yesterday, describing him as "probably the best finisher in England", and the former Charlton trainee took particular satisfaction in receiving the man-of-the-match award from his manager.

He was just the man to turn to after the side had gone almost five hours without a Premiership goal, and their campaign to qualify for Europe via their league position for the first time in 19 years is still on course.

This was Tottenham's first home win over Charlton in the Premiership. The last time they beat them here, in 1990, Gary Lineker was on the scoresheet, and Lineker would certainly have approved of the way Defoe took his goals. He must have a chance of a World Cup squad place, especially with doubts concerning Michael Owen's recovery.

"Jermain never disappoints me," Jol said.

"If he scores goals like this I will always play him. He's a confident lad. I think he and Robbie can play together and if they keep working and get the right balance it will be okay."

Later, however, Jol explained why the Defoe-Keane pairing will be an enduring problem for him.

"Sometimes I have to make a choice, just as they have to do at Chelsea - and at West Ham and West Brom, who both have five strikers. Ideally I like a striker who can hold the ball and another who can stretch defences. Jermain is an unbelievably good second striker. Robbie is a very good second striker. But they are not target men. Ask the England manager why he does not play Jermain up with Michael Owen. But Robbie and Jermain can play together."

Defoe, who has now scored seven goals this season, putting him alongside Keane as Spurs' second top scorer behind Mido, was clearly pleased finally to get a run in the side.

"When you come back in the side you feel you have something to prove," he said.

"I was delighted. It's been a frustrating few months but we have some great players. Today I thought we were really strong going forward."

Defoe put the home side ahead in the 14th minute when he cut inside Jonathan Fortune and his shot bounced off Luke Young and past the Charlton goalkeeper Thomas Myhre.

Spurs scored again just before half-time when Jermaine Jenas was put through by Keane and rounded Chris Powell before firing in. Defoe completed their scoring in the first minute of the second half, a neat dink over Myhre after Tom Huddlestone's excellent through-ball.

Defoe had only one serious rival for the match award and that was Michael Carrick, another strong candidate for the World Cup party. The pity for Tottenham is that Carrick plays better just in front of the back four and not pushed upfield as is often the case when Edgar Davids, currently injured, plays.

Jol's side scored their goals at perfect times and should have won more comfortably than they ultimately did. Instead they allowed Charlton to dominate long passages of the second half.

Charlton pulled one back through their eye-catching substitute, the former Arsenal winger Jerome Thomas, in the 70th minute and if they had scored again, as they almost did, in the 74th it might have been an interesting finish.

Charlton manager Alan Curbishley admitted Spurs were the better side: "Spurs deserved their win. I have no complaints. They set their stall out but we never did. You will never get anything from a game if you attack it the way we did today.

"We need to get our noses in front to give ourselves a chance and we didn't do that today. We are very disappointed.

"I'm taking nothing away from Spurs but we didn't help ourselves, especially with the third goal. We're always chasing the game away from home and we've got to get ourselves back on track.

"I thought Carrick was terrific today. He kept putting balls through for Keane and Defoe. I should have done something to stop that."

On yesterday's form, though, Defoe would have taken a lot of stopping.