Tottenham 5 Sunderland 1

If this was just another act in Tim Sherwood’s Tottenham swansong, he continued to play the lead role in the only way he knows. Brash, exuberant and always entertaining, Sherwood at times provided more compelling viewing on the touchline than the game itself, during which his team secured a comfortable victory that piled more misery Sunderland but may do little to convince Daniel Levy that he should remain at the helm beyond the summer.

Sherwood, who is set to leave Tottenham at the end of the season, could actually depart with the highest win percentage of all Premier League managers to have occupied his position. Here, following a day when speculation over his future had been plastered all over the TV and radio airwaves, he came out fighting and two goals from Emmanuel Adebayor and efforts from Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen and Gylfi Sigurdsson sent Spurs back into sixth above Manchester United.

The manager delayed his entrance before kick-off and emerged from the tunnel to a swarm of cameramen waiting expectantly in front of the dugout. Yet his presence on the touchline, rather than his recent preference of watching from the stands, failed to inspire a bright start from his side.

Instead, it was Sunderland who took the initiative as the rain swept down in north London. Gus Poyet made two changes from the team that lost at home to West Ham United but persisted with five at the back, a ploy that paid dividends in the early stages as Spurs dominated possession and piled forward with numbers but failed to breach the yellow barricades.

Eriksen almost scored direct from a right-wing cross in the sixth minute, forcing Vito Mannone to tip over the crossbar, but Sunderland carried a threat on the counter-attack. Fabio Borini and Adam Johnson offered ample pace and trickery up front, and Poyet’s side came close to the first goal when Wes Brown headed a Johnson free-kick narrowly wide.

They did not have to wait long for the opener, though the manner of the goal was bizarre to say the least. Vlad Chiriches, one of four changes made by Sherwood who opted to play Adebayor and Kane in attack, will not want to remember his part in a farcical exchange. The defender took a quick throw-in on the right wing in the 17th minute back to Hugo Lloris and, after a comical exchange of passes with the Tottenham goalkeeper, he inadvertently slid the ball back inside to Lee Cattermole, who finished precisely into the bottom corner from 25 yards out.

Sherwood appeared aghast, but Sunderland only held their lead for 11 minutes. During that period they sustained a minor barrage of pressure, with Kane snatching at a fine opportunity and Kyle Naughton firing into the side netting, before Adebayor pulled them level.

It came from a seemingly innocuous position, but Eriksen managed an excellent cross from wide left and the ball flashed across goal to the far post where Adebayor bundled the ball in with his thigh. The Togolese striker was close to a second before half-time but Phil Bardsley made a vital block with Adebayor inches away from making contact with a low cross from the right.

Poyet stormed down the tunnel before the opening half had reached a conclusion, shouting angrily at the fourth official Mike Dean, but appeared to have calmed down during the break.

It was Sherwood cursing soon later, as Lee Mason waved away penalty appeals from Tottenham following a collision between Eriksen and Carlos Cuéllar. The Dane, at the heart of Spurs’ midfield, jinked into the area and darted for the by-line with three yellow shirts around him, only to hit the ground after contact with Cuéllar’s leg. Sherwood was incredulous, especially after watching a TV replay, but his ire soon quelled as Tottenham took the lead.

Eriksen was again the architect, controlling the ebb and flow before picking the ball up down the left and delivering an enticing low cross across goal, similar to his assist in the first half, that Kane gratefully tucked past Mannone.

Kane was soon forced to the sidelines with a head injury that required significant bandaging, yet Sherwood, having just seen the striker score, was bellowing at the youngster and urging him to speed up his recovery and return to the pitch. His language, however, was more frank.

Eriksen, by far the brightest player on the pitch throughout the 90 minutes, was rewarded for his performance with Tottenham’s third. The midfielder has certainly proved to be the biggest success story following Spurs’ summer spree last year and again picked up the ball on the edge of the opposition penalty area, firing a low shot from the left that took a deflection on the way into Mannone’s bottom corner.

Adebayor tapped into an empty net in the 85th minute, following up on Mannone’s parry from a Kane effort, and although he appeared in an offside position, the game was longe gone. When Gylfi Sigurdsson completed the scoring with a close-range finish in injury time, Sunderland were already dead and buried.