Spurs fightback stuns Wolves, Newcastle bounce back

Tottenham shrugged off a European hangover to overcome Wolves and move into the top four of the Premier League on Saturday as Newcastle stunned Everton with a 1-0 victory at Goodison Park.

Spurs — who made their debut in the group stages of the Champions League in midweek — fought back from a goal down at White Hart Lane to bag all three points with three goals in the final 13 minutes.

Steven Fletcher had fired Wolves into a shock lead on half-time but Spurs hit back with a spotkick from Rafael Van der Vaart before Roman Pavlyuchenko and Alan Hutton secured the points for the Londoners.

Second-placed Arsenal can go top of the league later Saturday if they collect maximum points from Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

League leaders Chelsea play Blackpool on Sunday while Manchester United entertain Liverpool in a heavyweight clash at Old Trafford and Manchester City take on Wigan.

Elsewhere Saturday, Newcastle bounced back from last week’s home defeat to Blackpool to stun Everton at Goodison Park.

French striker Hatem Ben Arfa fired the Magpies into the lead with a 25-yard thunderbolt on the stroke of half-time and the Toffees were unable to find a way back into the game as Newcastle held on for the win.

Blackburn were forced to settle for a draw in their clash with Fulham at Ewood Park, which saw Rovers take the lead in controversial circumstances before the Cottagers hit back through Clint Dempsey.

Blackburn had gone 1-0 up after Fulham keeper Mark Schwarzer was bundled over by El Hadji Diouf to allow Chris Samba to head home Paul Robinson’s punt. Dempsey’s strike earned another point for Mark Hughes side.

Incoming Aston Villa boss Gerard Houllier watched from the stands as his new club were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Bolton.

Ashley Young had put Villa up with a curling freekick early on before Bolton striker Kevin Davies levelled for the visitors.

At the Hawthorns, Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish saw his delight at securing a new three-year contract turn to despair as the Blues crashed 3-1 to West Bromwich Albion.

The Blues went 1-0 up after a well-worked set-piece involving new signing Alexander Hleb. Hleb’s floated free-kick was met by Scott Dann, who headed to the far post for Cameron Jerome to ram home.

But the Baggies hit back immediately after the restart when an effort from Peter Odemwingie deflected off Dann to put the home side on level terms.

Shortly afterwards Odemwingie pounced on a slack backpass by Lee Bowyer to put Roberto Di Matteo’s men ahead before Jonas Olsson completed the scoring.

In Saturday’s early match, bottom club West Ham secured their first point of the season with a hard-fought 1-1 draw at Stoke.

Scott Parker had fired the Hammers into a first-half lead before Stoke striker Kenwyne Jones levelled for the home side early in the second half.

The result failed to lift West Ham from the foot of the table. The London club, whose Jewish manager Avram Grant had skipped the match to observe Yom Kippur, remain rooted to the bottom with one point from five matches.

Goalscorer Parker however believed the result could signal an upswing in the Hammers fortunes.

“I think we can take huge positives out of today. They put us under immense pressure and we defended really well,” said Parker.

“We came here today low in confidence and we can leave high in confidence.”