TOTTENHAM EASED THE pressure on Andre Villas-Boas as Lewis Holtby’s strike capped a dramatic comeback to win 2-1 at Fulham.
Villas-Boas’ team were in danger of suffering another embarrassing setback when Ashkan Dejagah gave the struggling hosts a surprise lead early in the second half.
But Vlad Chiriches’ first Tottenham goal and a cool finish from Holtby eight minutes from full-time spared Spurs’ blushes and gave them a first win in five Premier League matches.
While Villas-Boas was able to celebrate a much-needed three points, it was a frustrating start for Fulham’s new manager Rene Meulensteen following Martin Jol’s sacking at the weekend.
Fulham remain third from bottom while Spurs are sixth, four points behind Manchester City who won 3-2 at West Brom to stay in third.
Manuel Pellegrini’s side went 3-0 up through Sergio Aguero and a Yaya Toure brace.
And despite an own goal from goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon and late strike by Victor Anichebe, City closed out the win.
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Southampton suffered their first home defeat of the season as they lost 3-2 to Aston Villa in an absorbing tussle.
The hosts had twice fought back to level only for Fabian Delph to score a cracking winner for Villa.
Southampton manager Mauricio Pochettino had to hand a rare start to third choice ‘keeper 21-year-old Paulo Gazzaniga — injuries to Artur Boruc and Kelvin Davis ruling them out — and the Argentinian was picking the ball out of his net after a quarter of an hour.
It was rough justice on the hosts as they had barely allowed Villa a touch but had failed to turn their pressure into a goal and were hit by a counterattack and a fine goal by Gabriel Agbonblahor.
Saints, though, were far from deflated by conceding that goal and they might have equalised on the half-hour mark, Jay Rodriguez forcing a fine save out of Brad Guzan.
Rodriguez, who won his first cap for England last month in the friendly against Chile, did get the ball in the net three minutes into the second half as his header from Nathaniel Clyne’s cross powered past Guzan.
The hosts should have got a second shortly afterwards as Pablo Daniel Osvaldo’s deft backheel looked to have beaten the impressive Guzan, but the American got down well to save.
No sooner had that happened than Villa regained the lead as Libor Kozak headed in Karim El Ahmadi’s superb cross — the scorer’s reward was to be immediately replaced by Belgian striker Christian Benteke, who had been left on the bench after failing to score in the past seven games.
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The Saints, though, showing the huge character that has symbolised their impressive Premier League campaign thus far, levelled again as Osvaldo was on hand to head home after England striker Rickie Lambert had headed across goal to set the Italian up.
However, the previously rock-solid Southampton defence — who had only conceded 10 goals in the previous 13 Premier League games — allowed Delph the freedom to run at them and then unleash a superb shot from 25 yards to restore the visitors’ lead for good.
At the Liberty Stadium, Swansea brought Newcastle’s four-game winning run to a juddering halt with a 3-0 victory.
Substitute Nathan Dyer broke the deadlock with a volley on the stroke of half-time, with an own goal from Newcastle right-back Mathieu Debuchy and a late Jonjo Shelvey strike completing victory.
It was only a second win in seven home games for Michael Laudrup’s side, who climbed two places to 11th in the standings, while Newcastle slipped one place to seventh.
The game between Stoke City and Cardiff City finished goalless.
