Eidur Gudjohnsen went on for the injured Roman Pavlyuchenko in the first half to fire Spurs ahead at the Britannia Stadium and the home side then had Dean Whitehead sent off.

Stoke hit back through Matthew Etherington's penalty against his former club but Krancjar's 77th-minute strike captured three more points for Spurs, which has 55 from 30 games.

Aston Villa lost ground on Tottenham in the race for fourth place after it was held 2-2 at home by relegation-threatened Wolves and has 50 points from 29 games.

Almost certain to be relegated, last-place Portsmouth scored two goals in the last three minutes to beat next-to-last Hull 3-2.

In Ian Dowie's first game in charge of Hull, his players led 2-1 at Fratton Park until late strikes by Jamie O'Hara and Nwankwo Kanu denied them three points and kept them deep in trouble.

Burnley stayed 18th after losing 1-0 at Wigan thanks to a last-minute winner by Hugo Rodallega.

Everton beat Bolton 2-0 with goals by Mikel Arteta and Steven Pienaar to make it seven Premier League wins in a row, and Sunderland edged Birmingham 2-1 after Darren Bent took his tally of league goals to 20 with both strikes.

United hosts Liverpool and Chelsea goes to Blackburn on Sunday, when Manchester City visits Fulham.