KANE HITS JACKPOT!
Harry’s on the money as his double seals crushing win over poor Swans
NO WONDER Tottenham value Harry Kane so highly. Chairman Daniel Levy wrestled with his club’s strict wage structure to pin his star striker down to a new five-and-half year contract this week, making him the club’s top earner in the process.
On this evidence, he is more than worth that £100,000 per week figure, plus the bonuses. Kane is Tottenham’s gold — as he has fought back to fitness they have lacked shine. Against Swansea, Mauricio Pochettino’s team sparkled.
Kane got the first and the third yesterday in a dominant Spurs win that washed away some of the lingering memories of their premature Champions League exit and last week’s defeat at Chelsea.
The former will be dredged up when CSKA Moscow visit Wembley on Wednesday but for now Tottenham can revel in Kane’s magic, complemented by a super scissor-kick from Son Heung-min and two goals from Christian Eriksen.
Pochettino was delighted with that show of dominance — Tottenham had 28 shots to Swansea’s one; 15 on target to the visitors’ none. It was one-way traffic throughout.
‘I think we dominated, we created chances, we played well,’ Pochettino said. ‘They didn’t shoot — they didn’t create a chance, and I think it was a very good performance.
‘I’m very happy for the three points, and happy because we needed it after Monaco and Chelsea.’
Swansea were not a team invigorated by last week’s incredible 5-4 turnaround against Crystal Palace. Instead, they were flat and offered next to nothing in the face of a Spurs onslaught.
Bob Bradley has a lot of work to do to take this team out of relegation trouble. For Pochettino, though, the outlook is bright again.
A midfield pair of Victor Wanyama and Mousa Dembele barely gave Swansea a kick from the opening minutes and that provided the foundation.
The first meaningful action from a Swansea boot was that of Neil Taylor, flying into the face of Kyle Walker in a horribly high challenge six minutes in. Taylor, miraculously, escaped punishment.
Once that was over with, Spurs brushed themselves down to resume their dominance. The shots kept coming and Wanyama perhaps should have done better than placing the ball into the keeper’s midriff from the edge of the area, while Kane and Walker tested Lukasz Fabianski’s reflexes.
With Dembele running the show, a Spurs opener looked inevitable. And when the lead came, it was deserved — though perhaps in undeserving circumstances.
Dele Alli darted towards the byline in chase of a loose ball and as former Spurs man Kyle Naughton went across to cover, Alli tumbled inside the area. Was there enough contact to warrant a penalty? Perhaps not. Naughton barely raised a leg. Referee Jonathan Moss hesitated, consulted his assistants, and pointed to the spot.
Swansea protested to no effect. Kane was unflustered by the drama and stepped up to send Fabianski the wrong way — starting the process of paying out the inevitable dividends on that new contract.
Swansea might have thought they could get to half-time just one behind but, as the fourth official went to lift his board to announce two minutes of stoppage time, Son fired in the show-stopper.
Tottenham had worked their way forward and Eriksen had a timid shot blocked — it came out to the Korean wideman who did not look in a position to cause huge danger. He improvised, though, spinning a brilliant scissor kick into the top corner at Fabianski’s near post. White Hart Lane was buzzing at the break. Bradley threw on Fernando Llorente in a bid to make Swansea more of a threat. They were no longer camped in their own half but that just left them more open to the devastating Spurs trio of Kane, Son and Alli.
Four minutes into the second period and it was three for the hosts: Alli driving forward, feeding an onrushing Son who stopped inside the penalty area to let Kane slam into the bottom corner right-footed. That’s six in five games since his return from injury.
Kane twice went close to a hattrick and had a potential third ruled out for offside but a treble was not to be for him.
Eriksen, though, took up the goalscoring mantle to leave Fabianski fuming at his porous defence. With 21 minutes still to go Alli broke through down the right and forced an excellent save — only resulting in the ball cannoning up for Eriksen to scramble in ahead of Jordi Amat.
And there was still time for one more, substitute Moussa Sissoko’s driving run setting up the Dane, again, to find the bottom corner.
Five-star Spurs look back at their best. Swansea were the opposite.
‘We just weren’t good enough, we were second best too often,’ Bradley admitted. He felt Alli’s fall for the early penalty was a ‘game-changer’ — but in truth it was simply an outlet for Spurs’ dominance to flow, and flow it did.
21 Harry Kane has 21 Premier League goals in 28 games in 2016. Only Sergio Aguero (27) has more.