Tottenham edge thriller

Dimitar Berbatov showed what he truly is - pure class - as he scored 4 goals in a bizarre match at White Hart Lane between Spurs and Reading. Tottenham edged the thriller winning 6-4.

Spurs dominated the early possession, and made it count after just six minutes.

Steed Malbranque found Robbie Keane with a well-weighted through ball, and the Irishman squared the ball across goal to give strike partner Berbatov the easiest of tap-ins from inside the six-yard box.

Matches involving Tottenham have averaged over three and a half goals per game this season, so it was no surprise when another was scored just ten minutes later.

It was also no surprise that it came as the result of a defensive mix-up, as Younes Kaboul ignored Paul Robinson's call for the ball from a Nicky Shorey free kick. The defender bumped into the goalkeeper in mid-air, and the ball was only cleared as far as Cisse, who struck clinically into the bottom corner of the net from the edge of the area.

Neither manager made a change at half time, but the match exploded into life when centre back Ivar Ingimarsson was unmarked at a corner and headed Reading into the lead for the first time in the match on 53 minutes.

Ten minutes later it was Reading's turn to make a costly defensive error, as Shorey knocked a long ball right into the path of Berbatov, with the Bulgarian making no mistake from ten yards out.

Boyhood Tottenham fan Dave Kitson lost the hapless Younes Kaboul at the near post to glance in a header that restored the Royals' lead and sparked of a spell of five goals in nine minutes.

Two minutes later Berbatov got underneath a header from substitute Defoe and volleyed in a clinical strike to make it 3-3, before Kitson again made a fool of Kaboul and lifted a class finish over Robinson.

Frenchman Steed Malbranque produced the strike of the match with a curling effort into the top corner, before Hahnemann saved a Keane penalty only for Defoe to nod in the rebound and send Spurs into a 5-4 lead.

It was going to take a two-goal cushion to provide any kind of security in this match, and that came when Berbatov chased down a long ball, shrugs off Ingimarsson and fired a strike that Hahnemann couldn't keep out to seal all three points for Tottenham and leave Reading boss Steve Coppell scratching his head that his side got nothing from the game.