Andre Villas-Boas sacked by Tottenham after heavy defeat to Liverpool

Tottenham Hotspur acted swiftly after their worst homedefeat in 16 years to dispense with the services of manager Andre Villas-Boas, the English Premier League club announced Monday.Liverpool's 5-0 thrashing of Tottenham Sunday left thenorth London club in seventh place, five points below the Champions League places and eight adrift of leaders Arsenal.It followed a 6-0 loss to Manchester City last month and a tally of just 15 goals in 16 EPL games this season."The club can announce that agreement has been reached with head coach, Andre Villas-Boas, for the termination of his services," read a short statement on the Tottenham website.Read: Aguero sparks rout of Tottenham"The decision was by mutual consent and in the interests of all parties. We wish Andre well for the future. We shall make a further announcement in due course."Villas-Boas, 36, spent 17 months in charge of Tottenham, taking over from Harry Redknapp before the start of last season.Inspired by Gareth Bale, Tottenham achieved their best ever EPL points tally of 72, but narrowly missed out on a Champions League place to their arch-rivals Arsenal.Bale's world record sale to Real Madrid in the transfer window preceded a spending spree by Tottenham as they invested a reported £105 million ($171 million) on new players.Results have been mixed, with a 100 per cent record in qualifying for the last 32 of the Europa League -- where they have been drawn against Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk -- and progress to the quarterfinals of the English League Cup with a match against West Ham United Wednesday.