Tottenham 4 Sunderland 1: Mauricio Pochettino hails 'fantastic performance' as Jan Kirchhoff has nightmare debut

Kirchhoff deflected the third goal into the back of the net before conceding a penalty after coming off the bench on the hour mark

Sunderland debutant Jan Kirchhoff applauds the fans following the 4-1 defeat by Tottenham (Getty Images)

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino praised his side’s reaction after half-time having gone behind to a Patrick van Aanholt goal in the 4-1 victory over Sunderland that sees Spurs keep pace with the Premier League top three.

Two goals from Christian Eriksen, including an equaliser that came straight from the kick-off after Van Aaanholt’s effort, plus a Mousa Dembele effort and Harry Kane penalty gave Pochettino’s side a comfortable win at White Hart Lane.

But it didn’t all go the home side’s way as they went behind midway through the first-half, despite having the better of the opening period.

"I'm very pleased with the performance. It was a great effort from the players," Pochettino told BT Sport afterwards. "I think 1-1 (at half-time) was unfair - we deserved more. It happens in football. It was difficult to play in the space.”

The Argentinian refused to panic though, and after making some subtle changes at the break Spurs kicked on with three more goals coming in a dominant second half.

He added: "We tried to fix some problems at half-time. Our reaction was fantastic. The second half was good. We have the capacity to score. On the 90 minutes we deserved it - it's a fair result."

For Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce, it was the immediate equaliser that took the wind out of the Black Cats’ sails, and he felt that the players were visibly fatigued in the closing stages. Allardyce has already criticised the decision to have mid-week Premier League fixtures surrounding last weekend’s FA Cup third round ties, and while he didn’t blame the busy period for the result, he admitted that chasing the game wore his side out.

"The big problem today was letting them score (so soon) after we did,” said Allardyce. “I thought we'd done most things right defensively. Shooting yourself in the foot for me was them kicking off and scoring. Going in (at half-time) at 1-0 would've really lifted us.

"As the game wore on, we got more and more tired. I could see the energy in the players was diminishing. In the end we got beat by what is a very, very good team. Obviously the goals we gave them were a little too easy. We should've kept it tighter after they went into the lead, and tried to play our way into the game and not chase it."

Jan Kirchhoff conceded a penalty with a foul on Danny Rose (Getty Images)

January signing Jan Kirchhoff made his debut off the substitutes' bench after an hour following his £750,000 move from Bayern Munich last week, but he endured a game to forget after Eriksen’s second goal cannoned off his tame effort to block the shot, only to divert it into the back of the net, before conceding the penalty for Kane to round out the scoring after bringing Danny Rose down in the area.

"It's coming into the Premier League for the first time. He's found out how difficult it is,” Allardyce said of Kirchhoff’s debut. “We've got to get him on at some stage - it's always a risk. He has to learn from it quickly. We all know that when we bring in players from abroad."