Whoever would have thought it? Hardly at half-time, anyway. After quite a lively beginning, the game had relapsed into what you might call a kind of no man’s land with little of consequence happening at either end, until stoppage time. One-one was the half-time score, after it initially seemed that Tottenham might sweep Reading off the pitch, just as they had so ruthlessly done on Boxing Day to Fulham.

The second half, however, was a different story. To the two goals scored in the first half, Reading and Tottenham added eight more with Spurs constantly rising from the canvas. Among the various goalscorers, Tottenham’s elegant, incisive Bulgarian striker, Dimitar Berbatov, was quite outstanding. He ended up with four goals, ever capable of conjuring something out of nothing with his marksman’s intuition, and his exceptional technique.

Reading’s disappointed manager, Steve Coppell, lamented: “For 99 per cent of the game, we were terrific. We didn’t have a negative thought in our heads all afternoon. It was just individual defensive errors.”

Just? That was putting it mildly. In these days of supposedly tightly organised defences, each side committed blunders which would have looked parlous in a public park. Though Coppell did have a legitimate grievance when, speaking of the goal which Jermain Defoe darted in to score on 79 minutes, making it 5-4, heading home after Robbie Keane’s penalty was saved by Marcus Hahnemann, he reflected: “The goal shouldn’t have been given, because the chap (Defoe) was in the box when the ball was kicked. There could have been a retake but possibly not.”

Tottenham’s Spanish manager Juande Ramos, like Coppell, bemoaned his team’s individual errors. It was, he said, a crazy game, highly enjoyable for the crowd, but much less so for the managers. As to whether Berbatov will stay at Spurs in the New Year, Ramos said that he strongly wanted him to, but that the decision rested with the direction of the club and the player himself.

If Berbatov was a host in himself for Tottenham in the second half after a rather slow start, so was the towering, redheaded Dave Kitson for Reading.

The big centre forward had the Reading fans chanting: “Kitson for England” in the second half. Both with foot and head, he was almost as great a threat to Tottenham as was Berbatov on the ground to Reading.

It took only seven minutes for Spurs to go into the lead. Steed Malbranque found Keane on the right flank and his cross was allowed to reach Berbatov, who easily scored.

However in the 16th minute, Nicky Shorey sent in a free kick from the left. Out came Tottenham’s fallible goalkeeper Paul Robinson. His punch merely reached Kalifa Cisse, who put the ball away strongly and accurately.

It would be hard to keep up with a second half fusillade of goals. On 53 minutes, Shorey took an in-swinging corner from the right the ball sailed over Tom Huddlestone for Ivar Ingimarsson to head a gift of a goal.

On 63 minutes, Tottenham were level. When Defoe crossed, a poor clearance by Graeme Murty went straight to Berbatov and was promptly banged into the net.

Back came Reading and Kitson six minutes later, when, from another Shorey corner, Kitson was first to the ball with his near-post header.

Next 3-3, it was Berbatov again. Jermaine Jenas took the corner, Chimbonda scooped it into the air, and Berbatov drove the ball into the net.

On 74 minutes, Hunt sent Kitson through that shaky central defence to get another Reading goal. Two minutes later and Malbranque waltzed across the face of the goal pivoting to level the scores at 4-4.

Two minutes more, and Ibrahima Sonko brought down Keane, who missed the penalty, but Defoe’s infraction went unpunished.

There was still another goal to come for Spurs when Berbatov tucked in from the right and scored his fourth. Whatever happened to packed and impregnable defences?

Star man: Dimitar Berbatov (Tottenham)

Player ratings

Tottenham: Robinson 6, Chimbonda 6, King 6 (Defoe 61min), Kaboul 6, Lee 6, Lennon 6 (Boateng 67min), Jenas 6, Huddlestone 6, Malbranque 7, Keane 6 (Tainio 80min), Berbatov 8

Reading: Hahnemann 7, Murty 6 (De La Cruz 71min), Sonko 6, Ingimarsson 6, Shorey 8, Hunt 7, Harper 6, Cisse 6, Convey 6 (Long 84min), Doyle 6, Kitson 8

Scorers:Tottenham: Berbatov 7, 63, 73, 83, Malbranque 76, Defoe 79. Reading: Cisse 16, Ingimarsson 53, Kitson 68, 74

Premier League record scores

2007 Portsmouth 7 Reading 4
2007 Tottenham 6 Reading 4
1995 Man Utd 9 Ipswich 0
1996 Southampton 6 Man Utd 4
1997 Blackburn 7 Sheff Wed 2
1999 Nottm F 1 Man Utd 8
2000 Spurs 7 Southampton 2
2004 Spurs 4 Arsenal 5