Kane fires Spurs into history books
Tottenham earned a place in the history books and brought the cheer back to Wembley with an irresistible display of lethally potent, fluently attacking football that swept away enfeebled Stoke.
Mauricio Pochettino’s sharpshooters became the first side to win four consecutive English top-flight matches against the same opponent by a margin of four goals or more.
Poor Stoke might have thought things could not get any worse after three successive 4-0 maulings but the latest humiliation was truly the stuff of nightmares, triggered by an unfortunate own goal before a total collapse in the second half.
This, however, was Tottenham back to something like their scintillating best. Recent stumbles, which had dropped them out of the top four, were banished with an assured performance crowned by devastating finishing,
It was all orchestrated by the outstanding Heung-min Son and spearheaded by Harry Kane, who struck twice to take his 2017 goal tally to the half-century mark.
“The quality of our performance was very good. We were very clinical in front of goal,” Pochettino said.
“I didn’t have any doubts about the team. There are some not so good moments in every team. But I trust them and have confidence in them and we can see the future with optimism.”
Stoke counterpart Mark Hughes admitted: “I didn’t see that second half coming and it wasn’t acceptable from our point of view. We made key errors, individually and collectively.
“At half-time I was encouraged by what I saw but we then conceded two very poor goals.”
Hughes’s side had held firm for less than a quarter of the game before presenting the home side with a breakthrough own goal. Son whipped in a low cross that initially took a deflection from visiting defender Kurt Zouma before ricocheting off the chest of Ryan Shawcross, who was under pressure from Kane, and swirling beyond helpless Jack Butland.
Tottenham were relentless. A long run from Son through a spread-eagled defence ended with a shot blocked by Butland. Eager to present his England credentials on the Wembley stage, the Stoke goalkeeper also denied Christian Eriksen, from a free-kick, and Mousa Dembele in rapid succession.
The match, however, was put beyond any doubt early in the second half with a rapid Tottenham double strike that left Stoke reeling. Eight minutes after the restart, Dele Alli’s perfectly weighted through ball wafted into the path of Son, who strode on to finish low to Butland’s left.
Cue complete disintegration by the visitors. Butland was caught in possession by Kane and scrambled the ball out for a corner. When that danger was not properly cleared, Ben Davies pitched in a deep cross that Kane met perfectly, the striker heading down and past Butland.
Could it get any worse for Stoke? It most certainly could. Their flimsy rearguard was again in tatters as Kane was given time and space to guide home crisply from the edge of the penalty area in the 65th minute.
Now Tottenham were on the brink of a slice of history. The only previous Football League teams to win four straight matches against the same opponents by at least a four-goal margin were Barnsley against Darlington (1933-38) and Birmingham against Northwich Victoria in the 19th century.
Stoke’s suffering increased when Tottenham grabbed their fifth in the 74th minute, Son serving up Eriksen with the chance to slide the ball calmly beyond Butland.
Shawcross headed home 10 minutes from the end but it could barely be described as even a consolation on a desolate afternoon for the Midlanders. Struggling Sunderland ended the winning streak of Championship leaders Wolves despite playing the last 35 minutes with 10 men after Lee Cattermole was sent off.
Cattermole was shown the ninth red card of his career – albeit the first for four years – after picking up a second yellow just 54 seconds after the first.
The combative midfielder had to be pushed away by a team-mate after reacting angrily to his first caution for a foul on Romain Saiss and his next action was to dive into a tackle on Diogo Jota, leaving referee Jeremy Simpson little option but to dismiss him.
Sunderland, who have won only once in 17 matches, were left to finish a man short for the second week running, but where Callum McManaman’s first-half red card against Reading last week prefaced a capitulation, this one cost them nothing.
Having defended resolutely for the first hour against their free-scoring opponents, they simply redoubled their efforts to win new manager Chris Coleman a fourth point in his fourth match.
The former Wales national coach conceded that Cattermole had “lost his concentration for a moment” after the first yellow card and probably deserved the second, but was delighted with the resilience being shown by his new