Despite being pegged back after Rafael Van der Vaart had opened the scoring, Harry Redknapp’s side had City’s Togolese striker to thank for their 3-1 win over Swansea.
Adebayor nodded in his 13th and 14th goals of the season to re-ignite the London club’s attempt at qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
Down at the bottom end of the Premier League, Dedryck Boyata’s Bolton climbed out of the relegation zone with a hard fought 3-2 win over bottom club Wolves.
Though the Belgian international remained bench-bound throughout, the Trotters came from behind to claim a valuable third consecutive victory.
Alex Nimely’s Coventry secured a first away league win of the season over Hull to lift themselves out of the bottom three at the expense of Ryan McGivern’s Bristol City.
The Liberian-born striker played 67 minutes of the Sky Blues 2-0 victory before being replaced by Cody McDonald – scorer of his side’s second goal.
It was also an important weekend for Greg Cunningham’s Nottingham Forest, who put six points between themselves and the drop-zone with a 3-0 win at Crystal Palace – the Irish defender playing the full 90 minutes.
There was no game time for Oldham’s Harry Bunn, however, but his side remain seven points clear of the bottom three despite a last-minute defeat at the hands of play-off chasing Notts County.
Strike duo John Guidetti and Roque Santa Cruz both enjoyed more success on the continent
Guidetti’s Feyenoord beat NAC Breda 3-1 to remain within touching distance of the Dutch Eredivisie summit, while Santa Cruz played 78 minutes of Betis’ unexpected 2-0 conquest of big-spending Malaga.
Vladimir Weiss’ Espanyol couldn’t match those results, however, as they played out a goalless draw with lowly Villarreal.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Abu returned to Stromgodset for the second game of the 2012 Norwegian league campaign and his side claimed all three points against Valerenga.
The club’s 2011 Player of the Year saw his side twice come from behind before stealing a 92nd-minute victory to add their first points of the season to the table.
