Tottenham recovered from their League cup final loss to Manchester City last weekend and returned to winning ways on Sunday night courtesy of a 4-0 mauling of already relegated Sheffield United.
The North London club are still in search of their first trophy for over a decade and passed the chance of ending that last weekend but have put that behind them and turned their focus to fighting for a place in Europe next season.
Having not really being favored by erstwhile boss, Jose Mourinho, Gareth Bale was handed a start by interim manager, Ryan Mason for his second league game in charge which the Real Madrid loanee repaid handsomely.
Spurs wasted no time in stamping their authority on the game. They coasted to two glorious opportunities in the first 20 minutes of the encounter.
Heung Min Son's fine effort from range was pushed behind by Aaron Ramsdale on the 17th minute and barely a minute later, Harry Kane's effort was cleared off the line by Chris Basham who was a surprise inclusion in the team following two months on the sidelines.
Tottenham had to wait until the 36th minute to open scoring. It was a double lob goal. Serge Aurier, who was much highly criticized for his performance against Manchester City in the League cup final, lobbed a neat ball over the Sheffield defence and Bale also replicated the lob but his was over Ramsdale from a tight angle to give Spurs the lead into the interval.
The game was not deprived of its fair share of drama as a VAR check in the 49th minute cleared John Fleck of any wrong after his straying arm caught Le Coelso in the face but he seemed to have left that unintentionally.
Bale would grab his second of the night with a thumping effort into the top corner in the 61st minute after collecting a pass from Son, who earlier had his own effort chalked off by VAR for being inches offside.
The Welshman needed just eight more minutes to complete his hatrick with another assist from Aurier. This time, a shot into the bottom corner of Ramsdale's post before he was replaced by Ducth international, Steven Bergwijn with 15 minutes of play left.
Hardly had the Dutchman come on did he set up Son for a long range curler to make it four for Spurs and cap was a remarkable outing for the Whites.
With the win, Tottenham leapfrogged Liverpool and West Ham into fifth place, five points adrift of the top four with four games to spare.
Sheffield United have now lost 27 of their 34 league matches this season, the same number of games lost in the entire last season by premier league returnees, Norwich City.
Comments