Tottenham beat Sunderland 2-0 at White Hart Lane to gain revenge for their opening day defeat.

The match was book-ended by goals as Aaron Lennon opened the scoring after just two minutes before substitute Robbie Keane ended the Sunderland fightback with a strike in the 90th minute.

The first goal perfectly encapsulated the problems Roy Keane faces at Sunderland, as Jamie O'Hara's hounding of Paul McShane and Nyron Nosworthy rattled the defenders into fudging a clearance. O'Hara pounced on the loose ball to swing in a cross that, via a slight touch from Dimitar Berbatov, reached Lennon and the England winger had a simple task in finishing from close range with no one near him.

Following a spirited second-half battle from the north-east strugglers, Keane controlled a long ball to break forward and fire a left-footed shot underneath goalkeeper Craig Gordon to notch up his 100th goal for the club.

Spurs manager Juande Ramos rang the changes again in his starting line-up, with Keane dropped to the bench in favour of Jermain Defoe, while midfielder Tom Huddlestone returned from suspension to partner Michael Dawson in defence.

The towering Huddlestone's move to the back added height to the defence to deal with Sunderland's long balls and crosses aimed at strike-pairing Kenwyne Jones and Anthony Stokes. The latter of those two was substituted for Michael Chopra, the man who scored the winner against Spurs on the first day of the season, after just 39 minutes.

The Spurs defence repelled most of Sunderland's ariel onslaught, but eventually the mistakes that have characterised much of their season began to re-emerge.

In a hectic and riveting final twenty minutes Jones, Dean Whitehead and Liam Miller all had chances to capitalise on Tottenham's hapless defending, only for a combination of poor finishing and goalkeeper Radek Cerny, himself culpable of gifting a couple of opportunities, were enough to give the north London side only their fourth league clean sheet of the season.

The home side had certainly played the better football and dominated possession for much of the match.

Jermain Defoe, wearing the captain's armband until he was replaced by Keane, had a deft chip palmed away brilliantly by Gordon in the first half, before Berbatov forced an even better save from the Scotsman just a minute later.

The Bulgarian striker was again instrumental in much of Tottenham's attacking play, and was unfortunate not to score himself when he lashed a half-clearance onto the crossbar and into the crowd.

The result leaves Sunderland in the relegation zone on goal difference, while Spurs climb one place to 11th.

Tony Mabert / Eurosport