Jermain Defoe of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates his fifth goal against Wigan Athletic on Sunday.

London: England striker Jermain Defoe scored five second-half goals as an irresistible Tottenham Hotspur demolished Wigan Athletic 9-1 to go fourth in the Premier League on Sunday.

Defoe stunned the hapless visitors with a mesmerising second-half blitz at White Hart Lane after Spurs had gone in 1-0 up at the break thanks to a ninth-minute Peter Crouch header.

After hitting the bar in the 34th minute, Defoe opened his account in the 51st and wasted no time in completing his hat-trick seven minutes later.

He then netted again in the 69th and completed his tally with a right-foot shot three minutes from time as Tottenham fans sang “we want 10”.

Aaron Lennon also struck in the 64th while shell-shocked Wigan keeper Chris Kirkland added to the goal tally in the 88th when a David Bentley shot rebounded off the angle, hit him on the back and went in.

Croatia’s Niko Kranjcar scored in the dying seconds to wrap up Tottenham’s biggest win for 32 years, when they beat Bristol Rovers 9-0 in the second division, and their biggest in the Premier League.

Blackburn Rovers shrugged off the absence of manager Sam Allardyce, who is awaiting heart surgery, to beat his former club Bolton Wanderers 2-0.

In Italy, AC Milan were imperious in attack but woeful defensively in a 4-3 home win over Cagliari on Sunday which summed up their topsy-turvy season. Leonardo’s side, who were 2-1 down before racing into a 4-2 lead, moved into second spot in Serie A.

Clarence Seedorf gave the hosts an early lead after some superb passing but the Sardinians were ahead on the half-hour after Alessandro Matri and Andrea Lazzari exposed a static defence badly missing the suspended Alessandro Nesta.

More good attacking play pulled Milan back into the match with Marco Borriello heading in and Ronaldinho then setting up Alexandre Pato to fire home late in a frantic first half.

The often inconsistent Ronaldinho, who looked refreshed following the international break, slammed in a penalty in the second half to crown another improved display but Milan’s nerves were fraught in the closing stages after Nene made it 4-3.

Leaders Inter Milan won 3-1 at Bologna on Saturday as they chase a fifth straight scudetto. Francesco Totti marked his return from almost two months out with a recurring knee injury by scoring a powerful hat-trick in AS Roma’s 3-1 win over Bari on Sunday.

In Spain, Real Madrid replaced Barcelona at the top of La Liga on Saturday after they beat Racing Santander 1-0 at home and the champions were held 1-1 at Athletic Bilbao.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side head into next Sunday’s ‘classico’ at the Nou Camp with 28 points from 11 games, one ahead of Barca, after Gonzalo Higuain got the only goal at the Bernabeu. (Reuters)