SPURS LOVE THRILL OF THE TITLE CHASE
Kane quickfire strike puts Wembley wobble behind them
MAYBE Tottenham just prefer to give chase. Perhaps it’s all just that bit more fun when the target on their backs is smaller and the expectation on their shoulders is less.
That is one interpretation of this walloping, anyway.
A more sensible theory would focus on the disparities between the Wolves side who knocked Spurs on to their backsides on Saturday and the Cardiff team who helped them up to their feet here yesterday.
Indeed, Neil Warnock’s side really were complicit in their own demise in so much as they only pushed back once they were 3-0 down and the credit, if any is due, is that they at least battled from the 26th minute onwards to keep that gap to three.
Chance after chance still came, around nine more in all, but what might have become an all-out mauling was instead limited to a solid kicking.
Yet that will do for Tottenham, who stem some of that Spursy talk. For now, anyway. They have to live with that slur by virtue of what happened against Wolves, but just as one defeat in December is unlikely to determine their title challenge, this New Year’s Day win will only count for so much.
It doesn’t prove their resilience, it just gets them back on the horse and that was just about as much as they could hope for.
But they did it well. Very well, actually, especially that frontline of such delicious talents, each of which had his moment in this game. For his part, Harry Kane scored on three minutes with the ugliest finish of his career, taking his haul to 18 in all competitions and completing his set of scoring against all 28 Premier League sides he has faced.
Thereafter, he showed once more the string he has added to his bow this season, which is creation — he played a role in Christian Eriksen getting the second and then directly assisted as Son Heungmin got the third.
Kane now has six assists for the campaign in all competitions, which is just one shy of his record for an entire campaign — proof, if any were needed, that aside from being lethal, he is still developing as an all-round attacking entity. A special player indeed.
Pochettino, whose side went back up to second in the Premier League table, above Manchester City, was more effusive about the collective rather than the parts in his analysis.
‘It was so important to start to build another positive run after Wolves and of course in football it is impossible to win every single game,’ said the manager.
‘But for sure we are going to try to win every single game until the end, so it was so important for everyone, for confidence. It was so important to start the new year with a victory away from home, at a very difficult place.
‘It was a massive victory for us to make us believe that little more, in a possibility to be in a very good position in the table.’
Cardiff have been troublesome opposition in recent weeks, with six wins in their 12 games before this one.
But it is equally true that they have been pushed to pillar and post in challenges to the big six, with six defeats in six attempts this season and 22 conceded.
For a team like Tottenham, undertaking their fourth game in 10 games, they were still expected to be a difficult assignment in light of injury problems that meant Pochettino could rotate only one player for this fixture — Danny Rose in for Ben Davies.
As it happened, the game was over almost as soon as it started. Kane was at the origin of the move with a break through the middle before he rolled possession out right, from where Kieran Trippier whipped in a low cross.
Sean Morrison went to clear but clattered the ball off Kane’s knee and the rebound trickled past Neil Etheridge. When your luck is in, it’s in, as they say.
Cardiff had their best period of the match in response, all nine minutes of it, before Spurs got their second. Moussa Sissoko, having another fine game, was involved, as was Kane, before the ball worked its way to Son, who squared inside to Eriksen.
Bruno Ecuele Mangala was left as Etheridge’s last line of defence, but two shimmies by Eriksen bought some space and the Dane’s
finish from the edge of the area was lovely. Is he Tottenham’s best player? It’s a good argument.
Son wrapped it up after a Kane assist. The South Korean has eight goals in his last 11 starts, so he’s none too shabby, either.
Maybe the outlook at the club isn’t so bleak as one defeat made it seem. CARDIFF CITY (4-4-1-1): Etheridge 6; Manga 6, Morrison 5.5, Bamba 6.5, Cunningham 6; Paterson 6.5, Gunnarsson 7, Arter 6.5, Murphy 6 (Hoilett 46min, 6); Camarasa 6.5 (Ralls 59, 6); Reid 5.5 (Mendez-Laing 72, 6). Subs not used: Peltier, Bennett, Smithies, Madine. Booked: Bamba. Manager: Neil Warnock 6. TOTTENHAM (4-2-3-1): Lloris 6; Trippier 7, Sanchez 7, Alderweireld 7, Rose 7; SISSOKO 8, Winks 6.5; Son 7.5 (Skipp 76), Alli 6.5 (Llorente 86), Eriksen 7.5; Kane 7.5. Subs not used: Walker-Peters, Foyth, Gazzaniga, Lucas Moura, Davies. Manager: Mauricio Pochettino 7.5. Referee: Kevin Friend 7. Attendance: 32,485.