Kane and Bale double act revitalises Tottenhampush for top-four finish
‘BALE is back’ was the slogan Tottenham Hotspur excitedly pumped out on social media when the forward returned on loan from Real Madrid, and it looks like the five-month wait for him to roll back the years may well be worth it.
This may not be the galloping Gareth Bale who ended the careers of terrified right-backs, but this is once again the Gareth Bale who has stepped up just when Tottenham really need him.
Tottenham’s season was in danger of imploding when Bale was brought back into the starting line-up for the visit of Burnley. But three games and four goals from the 31-year-old later, and Spurs are back in the race for a top-four place.
Bale’s two goals against Crystal Palace meant he has scored six in six games and his latest brace came in his third start in a week. He lasted 69 minutes before being replaced by Erik Lamela, with head coach Jose Mourinho now counting on the man he seemed so reluctant to pick.
And while opposition defences only used to have Bale to worry about in his first spell at the club, they now have to stop the double threat of him and Harry Kane.
Kane set up two of Bale’s goals, cracked in a stunning strike of his own and headed Tottenham’s fourth in front of Tottenham’s delighted chairman Daniel Levy, who watched from his seat in the stands.
Bale was at the heart of all of Tottenham’s most dangerous moments in the first half and it was the Welshman who opened the scoring in the 25th minute.
Palace had done little wrong at the back until Luka Milivojevic was robbed of the ball inside his own half and the hosts took full advantage.
It was Lucas Moura, back in ahead of Dele Alli, who stabbed the ball away from Milivojevic to Kane and the striker delivered the perfect low cross from the left for Bale to score.
Bale will not have too many easier finishes, but he was in the right place at the right time and Patrick van Aanholt had problems with the Real loanee for the opening 45 minutes. Jordan Ayew was booked for pulling back Bale, who turned creator in the 38th minute with another cross from the right that Sergio Reguilon volleyed wide at the back post.
Reguilon screamed in frustration for missing and that annoyance ran throughout the Spurs team in first-half stoppage time, when they conceded a sloppy equaliser.
Palace had not managed a shot on target before Christian Benteke scored his team’s first league goal away at Tottenham since December
2004. Milivojevic swung over a great cross and Benteke climbed much higher than Toby Alderweireld to head his team’s equaliser.
Wilfried Zaha had returned to the substitutes’ bench, following five games out with a hamstring problem, and the forward went through a half-time warm-up session before replacing Eberechi Eze for the second half.
But it was Bale who reasserted his authority on the game just four minutes after the restart, as he started and finished the move from which Spurs regained the lead.
Bale did brilliantly to ride a challenge, hold on to the ball and find Reguilon out on the left with a superb cross-field pass. The leftback’s cross was headed back across goal by Kane to Bale, and he easily beat Vicente Guaita with a closerange header.
Zaha had barely touched the ball and yet, just seven minutes after he had been sent on, Palace conceded again and had a mountain to climb.
Bale was involved again, passing the ball to Matt Doherty, but this time Tottenham’s third goal owed to the brilliance of Kane, who curled a wonderful 25-yard shot past a helpless Guaita.
Zaha hit the post from 20 yards, but it was Kane who added to the scoreline with a close-range header following excellent work from Son Heung-min. (© Telegraph Media Group Limited 2021)