Dinamo Tbilisi 0-5 Tottenham Hotspur: Townsend Inspires Spurs to Commanding Europa League Rout

A rampant Tottenham Hotspur took a huge stride in confirming their presence in the group stages of the Europa League as they dominated a lacklustre Dinamo Tbilisi.

With the seemingly imminent transfer of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid casting a shadow over the club's start to the season, Andre Villas-Boas' side ruthlessly ensured the return leg at White Hart Lane next week will be nothing more than a formality, as goals from Andros Towsend, Paulinho, Danny Rose and a brace from Roberto Soldado saw the visitors take a 5-0 win at the Boris Paichadze National Stadium.

In shades of the club's campaign of last season, Andre Villas-Boas opted for a strong starting XI from the start, with new signings Etienne Capoue and Paulinho starting together for the first time in an imposing midfield that perhaps unsurprisingly, overpowered their Georgian counterparts from an early stage.

Dinamo had the ball in the Tottenham net after six minutes however, after Xisco lobbed Hugo Lloris from the edge of the box having been teed up by his teammate Dvali. The Frenchman was rooted to the spot, but for good reason having spotted an offside flag in the air.

As Capoue and Paulinho took early control, the visitors were awarded with the opening goal thanks to a powerful individual effort after 12 minutes from Townsend.

After a Tbilisi corner was cleared by Gylfi Sigurdsson, Kyle Naughton helped the ball onto the former QPR loanee who drove from deep in his own half before firing an effort into the bottom right hand corner of the net past the despairing Loria.

Spurs appeared to be cruising, but the ever-alert Hugo Loris was called into action after 25 minutes when he was forced to palm away a stinging header from Dvali after Xisco's whipped in cross.

After their scare, Tottenham continued to look comfortable with Soldado proving to be a persistent thorn in the side of the hosts' defence as Sigurdsson caused problems from his wide left starting berth.

The imposing frame of Capoue nearly fashioned an attempt on goal for the Frenchman as he strode past four opposing blue shirts, before overrunning the ball and hitting a tame effort.

With no Bale - perhaps permanently - and no Lennon, Townsend was giving a clear indication that there was life in Tottenham's marauding wing options yet, playing a sublime role in the visitors' second.

Naughton did well to retrieve the ball in his own half from Dvali before setting Townsend off down the right once again. The winger patiently approached the box, dancing past Glisic to dink in a perfect cross for the rampaging Paulinho, who nodded in an easy goal in his second outing as a Spurs player.

The Premier League side would not have things all their own way in the early stages of the second half as Tbilisi returned with renewed vigour, forcing Michael Dawson to dive across to block a reasonable effort from Vouho out for a corner.

Just after the Georgians had maintained their first real sustained period of possession, Tottenham added a third. Townsend once again picked the ball up and barrelled down the right flank, easily striding ahead of Papava who had been tormented by the 22-year-old all evening. Reaching the by-line, Townsend squared the ball to Soldado, who clinically swept the ball into the back of net.

Tbilisi's resilience was rapidly waning, and Tottenham were now comfortably dominating proceedings with flair. With still just that one, albeit memorable, goal against Arsenal to his name as a Spurs player, Rose added an equally spectacular effort to his small collection as he struck an unstoppable shot into the top left hand corner of the net.

Record signing Soldado was on the scene to add his second and Tottenham's fifth just minutes later as a the ragged visitors did little to stop Nacer Chadli from whipping in a smart cross from the left, and even less to stop the Spaniard adding to his haul.

The training game cliché was in full swing as Villas-Boas introduced Harry Kane and Tom Carroll on for Soldado and Paulinho, and the former was unlucky to not add a sixth in the last 10 minutes when his header struck a post after clever work from Townsend and Chadli.