Adebayor is the striker Spurs were looking for



When Emmanuel Adebayor, with surgical calmness, rounded the Wolverhampton Wanderers goalkeeper, Wayne Hennessey, and slotted the ball home to put Tottenham Hotspur on the road to victory, he completed a hat-trick of scoring on his debut for Premier League clubs, following Arsenal and Manchester City. It also meant Harry Redknapp could breathe easier.

September is the cruellest month for Spurs – they had not won away from home in that month since 2001 – but a lack of goals last season was even crueller. With the exception of Rafael van der Vaart on 13, not one of their forwards scored more than 10 league goals – a drought which no doubt contributed to their non-reappearance in the Champions League. Adebayor, Redknapp is hoping, will be a Henry Higgins for his do‑little strikers and the performance on Saturday was exemplary.

He was a torrent of movement throughout the 90 minutes. Compare his passes in this match with the same one last season, when he was playing for Manchester City. This season there were almost double the successful passes and far fewer unsuccessful ones. The spread of them also shows he was constantly moving, dropping deep to help link the play or working hard on either wing. He also made twice the number of tackles and at one stage even demanded the ball in the right-back position. The goal was the icing on a notable performance.

After the game Adebayor trotted out the usual lines expected from those generally pointless post-match press conferences about a "dream debut" and how "happy" he is. But there was one interesting remark: "All my team-mates have a big trust in me [sic]". This is the key to Adebayor. He needs to be loved, he needs to be trusted. It will take all of Redknapp's famed man-management to keep him happy both on and off the pitch but, if he can do that and make a successful duo out of him and Defoe, Spurs may just have a season on their hands. IMc

Chelsea must embrace Sturridge's unpredictability



So, Mario Balotelli, that's how to score with a cheeky backheel. Daniel Sturridge has not been given much of a chance at Chelsea since his move from Manchester City two years ago, yet with one moment of genius against Sunderland he has given André Villas-Boas the sort of selection headache managers claim to hate but secretly love – assuming Roman Abramovich will not mind if he leaves the £50m disappointment Fernando Torres on the bench at Old Trafford on Sunday.

On the evidence of Sturridge's display at the Stadium of Light, Villas-Boas may not have a choice. Not only did he embarrass Simon Mignolet and Wes Brown with his impudent goal, which was the sort of casual, playful piece of skill you might have expected from Nwankwo Kanu in his prime, rather than an English striker; his vision and precise, lofted ball created John Terry's opener. It is doubtful whether another of Chelsea's strikers would have come up with that assist – it is certainly not in Torres's repertoire – and Sturridge does offer them something different.

Which is precisely what Chelsea have lacked in the past few years. They had it very briefly under José Mourinho, when he could choose two from Damien Duff, Joe Cole and Arjen Robben to play on the wings, but gradually they reverted to a more physical approach; though they were devastating going forward, moves were often based on the raw power of Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard's ability to ghost unnoticed into the area. Has it brought results? One Premier League title in five years and early exits in the Champions League in the last two seasons suggest not.

Some fans were dismayed when Sturridge was allowed to join Bolton Wanderers on loan last January; then again, although Chelsea could have done with him, he has returned keener, sharper and more mature after scoring eight goals in his short spell at the Reebok Stadium. It will still be difficult for Villas-Boas to pick him ahead of Nicolas Anelka, Drogba and Torres on a regular basis but he has certainly made a compelling case. Now he has to build on it. JS

Bruce is in trouble at Sunderland



With the defeat by Chelsea on Saturday, Sunderland have lost seven of their past eight Premier League games at the Stadium of Light. This result may not come as a shock to Sunderland fans but their team's form just might. The Black Cats used to start the season well, then fade badly – from the strat of February last season they took a measly one point from a possible 27. Without a win so far this season it seems they have decided to skip the get-your-hopes-up stage and go straight for the throw-your-season-ticket-at-the-manager stage.

"Our aim is to be established again, improve on what we did last year and go close to the top 10," Steve Bruce said before the start of the season. But the question on the lips of Sunderland fans must now be, can they do this with Bruce at the helm?

The former Wigan Athletic manager was booed by the home fans at the end of the game and it is easy to see why. Sunderland blogger A Love Supreme described the performance as "lacklustre and uncommitted", suggesting that his are a team devoid of motivation and that Bruce is failing to do an integral part of his job. Chelsea's goals also showed that the former central defender is failing to do another integral part of his job: organising his defence.

Bruce blamed "parasites" for the club's record signing Asamoah Gyan – whose pace was sorely lacking up front against Villas-Boas's side – leaving the north-east but, rather than him question Gyan's motivations, the whole process should have fans questioning Bruce's man-management. How and why did he let last season's leading scorer leave only three games into the season when, including the Carling Cup, they have scored only two goals from five games, one of which was a consolation against Chelsea?

Bruce has the type of budget and resources that must make David Moyes at Everton wring his hands in envy. Those resources should see Sunderland challenging for Europe. The Scot could be a good choice for the Black Cats if Bruce fails to lead them in that direction and pays with his job, which he may sooner or later. IMc

Stoke can challenge for the Europa League



Given the amount of time the ball spends in the air during Stoke's matches, their players have a head for heights but a quick look at the league table may bring on a few nosebleeds. Still unbeaten, they are fourth, four points off the leading Manchester clubs and one point ahead of Liverpool, whom they defeated 1-0 on Saturday, albeit with a fair bit of luck. There is, of course, a long way to go yet and Tony Pulis's side are unlikely to be challenging for the Champions League by the end of the season; the glass ceiling remains intact, no matter how desperate Stoke might be to shatter it.

Even so, this should be another successful season for them, following one in which they reached the FA Cup final and qualified for the Europa League, although they did finish only 13th in the league. They will be aiming for much better than that this time, particularly given the backing of Peter Coates, who has allowed Pulis to sign Peter Crouch, Wilson Palacios, Matthew Upson and Jonathan Woodgate during the summer. Clearly Stoke are not about to alter their no-nonsense style – uncompromising defending, pace on the flanks, aerial threat in attack and a reliance on set pieces – but after a wobble at the start of the year, everything is in working order again. Watching them in the Europe this season promises to be fascinating. JS

Norwich need an injection of pace



Norwich were unlucky to be defeated by a savvy West Bromwich Albion side that mugged them on the break within three minutes and could have had two penalties if the referee, Mark Halsey, had punished Jonas Olsson's fondness for a penalty-box grapple with the same rigour Mark Clattenburg applied when penalising Liverpool's Jamie Carragher. They might have had a third, too, when James Vaughan was on the receiving end of a smack in the mouth from Gabriel Tamas in the dying minutes before Albion saw out their first victory of the season.

City enjoyed a wealth of possession and were enterprising down the left for much of the first half, Marc Tierney linking up productively with Andrew Crofts and Andrew Surman to dash beyond Steven Reid and cross into the box. Too often, though, Grant Holt and Chris Martin, the Norwich front two, did not have the legs to run into position to get the optimum contact on the ball.

This was the case, too, when passes were dinked down the inside-forward channels, splitting Tamas and the right-back Reid, and Olsson and the left-back Nicky Shorey. Crofts, the substitute Wes Hoolahan and Elliott Bennett played a number of decent passes for Holt and Martin to run on to but they lacked the turn of pace to make the most of this tactic.

Steve Morison missed a very good chance when he was introduced as a late substitute, stooping to head a fine cross from Tierney past the post, but demonstrated, when squeezed out in a sprint with Tamas, that he does not offer any more than the front two Paul Lambert had selected to start in terms of speed to stretch defenders when passes are played on the floor through the middle.

Norwich's midfield four acquitted themselves well going forward and they can be excused their high line that left the defence exposed at times, given that they were chasing an equaliser almost from the start. The live wire Simeon Jackson would offer the Canaries more variety than the industrious Morison and Martin. Banging on about pace can make you sound like vintage Andy Gray on his high horse. Nonetheless, perhaps it is time to give Jackson a run. RB