Defoe treble helps five-star Spurs turn on style

Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe scored a hat-trick as his side turned on the style to crush Hull 5-1 at the KC Stadium on Wednesday.

Defoe has made an impressive start to the campaign after notching a double for England in last week’s friendly against Holland and he tore Hull’s defence to pieces.

After Defoe had opened the scoring, Tottenham midfielder Wilson Palacios claimed his first goal in English football.

Stephen Hunt pulled one back for Hull, but Defoe struck again, then Robbie Keane underlined’s Tottenham’s dominance before Defoe completed his treble.

After beating Liverpool on Sunday, Harry Redknapp’s side have now won their opening two matches of the season for only the second time in 14 years to go top of the table, while Hull are without a win in 12 league matches dating back to their dismal end to last season.

With Ledley King unable to play two games in a week due to his degenerative knee problem, Redknapp moved Vedran Corluka to centre-back and brought in Alan Hutton at right-back.

Even without King, Redknapp’s team looked full of confidence after their win over Liverpool and ripped into Hull in the early stages.

Defoe opened the scoring in the 10th minute as he took Tom Huddlestone’s pass and drove a typically clinical strike past Boaz Myhill.

Before Hull had a chance to regroup, Tottenham increased their lead four minutes later as Keane picked out Palacios and the former Wigan midfielder calmly slotted home.

There was a blow for Tottenham when goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes, who had hurt himself stretching for a high ball moments earlier, had to be replaced by Carlo Cudicini.

Tigers boss Phil Brown responded to Hull’s problems by hauling off striker Daniel Cousin and sending on Brazilian midfielder Geovanni after 21 minutes.

In the 24th minute Geovanni won a free-kick on the right touchline and Hunt, a scorer on his debut at Chelsea on Saturday, floated in a cross that bounced past Geovanni and into the net as Tottenham’s defence stood flat-footed.

Brown’s team thought they had equalised when Caleb Folan fired past Cudicini but referee Chris Foy blew for a foul on Sebastien Bassong.

Just as the Tigers were starting to dominate, Defoe broke clear on the stroke of half time to lash home his second goal after Michael Turner was wrong-footed by Keane.

Hull appealed for a penalty in the second half after Geovanni went down in the area but Foy was unmoved and referee turned down more Tigers penalty protests for hand ball soon after.

Geovanni looked to be Hull’s most likely hope of an equaliser and he shot straight at Cudicini before testing the Italian keeper with a powerful header.

But Spurs wrapped up the points in the 78th minute after breaking following a Hull corner.

The ball was worked wide to Aaron Lennon and the England winger lofted a perfect cross for Keane to head in.

There was still time for Defoe to have the final word when he drilled home a fierce left-footed shot in injury-time.