Tottenham 4
Liverpool 2

Darren Bent began the week a contender for a recall to the England squad but, after watching his team-mates reach the Carling Cup quarter-finals, the striker now has a job on his hands to get back into the Tottenham side.

With the in-form Bent left on the bench ahead of Saturday's Premier League derby at Fulham, Spurs boss Harry Redknapp handed Roman Pavlyuchenko and Fraizer Campbell the chance to state their case for a first-team spot.

The pair responded with two goals each, Campbell's strikes his first since joining the club on loan from Manchester United, to help Spurs to their second win over Liverpool in 12 days following the 2-1 League success at White Hart Lane.

Between them, Bent, Pavlyuchenko and Campbell have scored 18 goals in as many matches this season, with 13 of those coming in Redknapp's six games in charge.

After the same number of games last season, Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane and Jermain Defoe, all of whom have now left the club, had managed two fewer. It seems remarkable to think that, before Juande Ramos's sacking on 26 October, Spurs appeared to be far too weak in attack, with chairman Daniel Levy even acknowledging he had failed to replace Berbatov and Keane adequately.

That said, Pavlyuchenko and Campbell would surely not have been able to fill their boots to such a degree had Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez decided to use his strongest XI for this tie.

Redknapp also rested key men Ledley King, Luka Modric, Jonathan Woodgate, David Bentley and Bent, while Benitez made 10 changes from the team that began last Saturday's 3-0 victory over West Brom.

Poor defending contributed to all four of Spurs' goals. For the first, Sami Hyypia could not live with Campbell's pace, allowing the forward to set up his unmarked strike partner Pavlyuchenko, who opened the scoring from close range seven minutes before half-time.

Then Campbell, in front of watching England manager Fabio Capello, took advantage of a mix-up between Liverpool keeper Diego Cavalieri and Andrea Dossena to guide his first goal for Spurs into the unguarded net.

Campbell made it three goals in seven minutes when he headed in Aaron Lennon's cross from the left after being left unmarked inside the penalty area by Dossena.

Four minutes after the interval, Liverpool briefly threatened a comeback when Spurs goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes added another error to his growing list of mistakes when he failed to keep out Damien Plessis's tame header from Ryan Babel's left-wing corner.

But a full-scale Liverpool revival was never likely, so high are Spurs' levels of confidence and belief these days. In the 52nd minute, Didier Zokora was allowed to race goalwards from midfield and when his cross shot looped up off Hyypia, Pavlyuchenko was in the perfect position to steer in the loose ball.

With Gomes in goal, though, Spurs' players and fans can never feel totally at ease. The Brazilian was at fault once more in the 63rd minute for Liverpool's second as he failed to claim Babel's corner and Hyypia headed in from six yards.

An uncomfortable night for Gomes was made considerably worse when he was caught in the head accidentally by Philipp Degen, who was trying to reach a through-ball. Play was halted for five minutes as Gomes was carried off and replaced by Cesar Sanchez but the injury was not serious.

Spurs have enjoyed plenty of luck since Redknapp's arrival and they had another break eight minutes from full-time, when Liverpool were denied a penalty after Gareth Bale tripped Degen. With nine minutes of stoppage-time to be played because of Gomes's injury, Liverpool would have been confident of taking the match into extra-time had they been given a spot-kick.

But, as it was, Redknapp was able to reflect on his fifth victory in six matches - the best start that a Tottenham manager has made for 110 years.

He said: "I made seven changes for this game, but the players I brought in - Lennon, Jamie O'Hara, Alan Hutton, Michael Dawson and Gareth Bale - are good players. We have a good squad.

"With Chelsea losing against Burnley, the tournament could open up. If you are in it, you want to win it but we have to keep going up the league table. That is the most important thing for me."

Since his arrival, Redknapp has recognised that the Premier League is the priority for Spurs, something his predecessor Ramos never seemed to embrace. So while Redknapp would love to retain the trophy that Spurs won under Ramos at Wembley in February, he would be quite happy to end the campaign without a trophy if it meant that top-flight safety was secured.

The way Spurs are playing, there's no reason why both objectives cannot be achieved.