Adebayor aims to end season on a high

Emmanuel Adebayor hopes Tottenham’s win over Swansea can spark a revival that will see him end his first season at the north London club with a top-four finish and his first FA Cup winner’s medal.

Adebayor bagged two vital late goals on Sunday as Spurs ended their seven-week wait for a Barclays Premier League victory by beating the Swans 3-1 at White Hart Lane.

Previous defeats to Everton, Manchester United and Arsenal had put the club in danger of dropping out of the top four, but they are now level with the Gunners and five points clear of Chelsea and Newcastle with seven games remaining.

Tottenham also have an FA Cup semi-final against the Blues to look forward to a week on Sunday and Adebayor, who has never clinched a cup winner’s medal, is confident his team can end the season with a bang.

“For me my target before coming to join Tottenham was to get in to the top four and we are in a good position to do that now,” the 28-year-old told Spurs TV Online.

“We are in the FA Cup semi-final as well. We just have to give it a go, try to give everything and finish in the top four, and why not win the FA Cup as well?”

Despite keeping pace with the leaders for most of the season, Tottenham’s campaign started to fade away in February and the 12-point lead they had over Arsenal evaporated with alarming speed.

Many had claimed Spurs were cracking under the pressure of being in such a lofty position, but Adebayor thinks last weekend’s win proves that Harry Redknapp’s squad are mentally tough enough to cope with the position they find themselves in.

“When Swansea pulled it back to 1-1 it was quite difficult, but in the head we have a good squad, we have belief,” the striker added.

“We knew in our heads that we could change it around. We showed character and personality by winning right at the end.

“Now we have closed the gap on Arsenal and have maintained a gap over Chelsea and Newcastle.

“It was very important for everyone, for the players and the fans, and hopefully now we will go on a good run until the end of the season.”

Tottenham are yet to come to an agreement with City over making Adebayor’s move to White Hart Lane permanent.

The player himself wants to stay in London but has hinted that he would be unwilling to take a pay cut from the 170,000 he is reported to earn at the Etihad Stadium.

Rafael van der Vaart urged the Tottenham board to tie up a deal for the former Arsenal man after his exploits against Swansea and Spurs team-mate Younes Kaboul today joined the Dutchman in showering praise on the Togolese.

“I’m happy for Emmanuel. He scored twice and a striker always needs to score goals to be confident,” Kaboul said.

“He’s been in good form and he scored two magnificent goals. That’s the Emmanuel we all know. He worked hard, pressed the defenders well – he’s been fantastic.”

Spurs face arguably the hardest opponents of their run-in this weekend when they travel to the Stadium of Light to play a Sunderland team who have their tails up after drawing 3-3 with Manchester City on Saturday.

Kaboul added: “That will be a tough away game. They were very good against City. We need to be in good form up there.”

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