Tottenham Hotspur have returned to winning ways in the Premier League in emphatic style by seeing off Stoke City 5-1 at Wembley Stadium this afternoon.
The Lilywhites ran riot in the second half with four goals, two of which were claimed by leading scorer Harry Kane to take his league tally for the year to 33 goals.
Previously winless in four top-flight outings, Spurs are now back on track and find themselves one point adrift of Liverpool in fourth place.
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Tottenham soon settled into their rhythm, giving Jack Butland something to think about 10 minutes into the match through a Son Heung-min drive that lacked precision.
A flicked Ryan Shawcross header soon after, slightly out of Mame Biram Diouf's reach, was just about the best the visitors could offer in a first half that Spurs went on to dominate.
The opening goal did have more than a slice of luck to it, however, as Son's cross from the left hit Kurt Zouma and then an unfortunate Shawcross on its way past Butland.
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From that point on it was a question of whether the Lilywhites would add to their scoring before the break, with both Son and Kane wasting one-on-one opportunities - the South Korean being denied down low and his teammate missing the target entirely.
Butland, making his second successive appearance following a month-long spell on the sidelines, was also required to keep out a Christian Eriksen free kick and Mousa Dembele shot from 25 yards.
Spurs had won 24 of the last 25 games in which they had taken the lead prior to today, but their goal was under threat early in the second half when Shawcross mustered his side's first on-target attempt via a back-post volley.
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Son tucked the ball past Butland seven minutes after the restart to kickstart Tottenham's afternoon, however, having once again been played clean through by a Dele Alli pass.
Stoke barely had a chance to settle before Kane headed home from a Ben Davies cross for number three, and the Englishman doubled his personal tally shortly after the hour mark with an instinctive first-time finish from the edge of the box.
Lloris was called into action in between those two goals, keeping out Xherdan Shaqiri from point-blank range as the visitors looked for a route back into the match.
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Had things stayed the same, Spurs would have become the first English team to beat the same opponents 4-0 in four successive matches, but Eriksen put an end to that by firing across goal and into the net at the end of a counter for number five.
There was to be some respite for the hapless visitors, though, thanks to a Shawcross header at the back post to reduce the arrears slightly after Lloris failed to claim the ball.
That was only a slight blemish on the scoreline as far as Spurs are concerned, although they would have had a bigger margin of victory had Butland not produced another couple of late saves, including a fine stop to thwart Eriksen from eight yards out.
Tottenham Hotspur (4-2-3-1): Lloris; Trippier, Dier, Vertonghen, Davies; Dembele, Winks; Son (Llorente 87'), Eriksen, Alli (Lamela 67'); Kane
Stoke City (3-4-3): Butland; Zouma, Shawcross, Wimmer; Edwards (Crouch 70'), Fletcher, Allen (Affelay 80'), Pieters; Shaqiri (Cameron 76'), Choupo-Moting, Diouf
Daniel Lewis
