GUNNERS KANED
Spurs fans sing striker’s praises as derby double secures a famous victory
AS A pulsating and compelling north London derby reached its final few minutes, one man rose to take centre stage.
There were 85 minutes on the clock when Nabil Bentaleb swung in a hopeful cross which, in reality, should have been dealt with better. Neither Laurent Koscielny nor Per Mertesacker claimed it for their own. One man did, however. He is, of course, the man of the moment. He had dominated the pre-match talk, no one now able to avoid his obvious qualities.
There is no keeping down Harry Kane at present. Certainly not when that Bentaleb cross arched its way through the air and met the head of Kane. He had risen with timing, grace and power to meet the ball and directed it home to initiate a cacophony of noise at White Hart Lane.
The old ground isn’t often as excited or vociferous as this. To beat their north London rivals and to go above them in the race for fourth place is one thing; to do so, as those Tottenham fans sing, with ‘one of their own’ made this a famous derby victory.
Kane scored both goals yesterday and now has 22 for the season. We keep waiting for his rise to reach a plateau but he seems blissfully unaware of the fact. He simply keeps scoring: poachers’ goals, headed goals, penalty goals and long-range goals.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino said: ‘For me, you watch the training session and afterwards you decide if the player deserves to play. I don’t look at the names or their years. When you work with a player, you can see the quality but you still have to give them the possibility to play. You have to take a decision as a manager. You need to take a risk.’
That risk has been rewarded and as Kane left the pitch, the ground serenaded him with that song: ‘He’s one of our own.’
Even Arsene Wenger, amid his disappointment, could smile as the Arsenal manager said: ‘When you have scored the number of goals he has scored, if England don’t put him in there, someone will give him a passport from another country.’
Wenger was generous in praise but could not help reprimanding his own players. ‘Cheap goals,’ he almost spat out when analysing his defence. ‘He (Kane) was good, as always. He grows and he has good determination and doesn’t stop. He keeps going. The regret I have is that we gave him a cheap goal. It’s worrying that at the back with five minutes to go we are always making the same mistakes. Overall we defended with solidarity. But the biggest regret is that we didn’t have a big day and we can do much better.’
He was right, but nevertheless the movement and anticipation of Kane contributed to the embarrassment of Arsenal’s defence. And the visitors were curiously devoid of creativity for long periods.
‘Going forward we didn’t produce enough,’ added Wenger. ‘Were we too focused to defend? I think so.’
The fairy-tale script was some time in coming. Kane was quiet initially when it appeared as though a doggedly defensive Arsenal team might prevail.
They scored on 11 minutes when Danny Welbeck tore past Danny Rose, finding Olivier Giroud, who skewed his strike to Mesut Ozil. The German did, in fact, have a big toe offside but with the officials oblivious, he simply executed the kind of deft volley which to him is second nature.
However, Arsenal did little else after the goal as Tottenham poured forward. Rose went close twice, Bentaleb shot just wide and Ryan Mason brought a diving save from David Ospina on the half-hour.
Arsenal were on the defensive, but curiously, they weren’t creaking. That said, there is always an obvious risk in inviting teams on to you and Arsenal are not yet masters of the art.
Their solidity was already beginning to wane when they defended a 56th-minute corner. Mousa Dembele flicked it on and Ospina punched it away but only to the feet of Kane, who was lurking at the far post.
Kane had made little impact until then but he was not to be denied his moment. Having eluded his marker, he struck decisively from close range and White Hart Lane roared once more. The stadium was as vociferous as it can be and Arsenal suddenly looked beleaguered.
They responded with a lovely curling Welbeck strike which Hugo Lloris did well to tip away. Ospina was called back into action to make a fine save from Bentaleb on 64 minutes but it seemed as if honours would be shared.
We had reckoned without the intervention of that man Kane. His plot lines grow increasingly implausible. Sooner or later, we will have to start believing in him.