Kane top of the charts after key double strike
Man United’s Rashford continues to thrill with winner at the Etihad
HARRY KANE moved top of the Premier League scoring charts this season with a brace to keep his side on leaders Leicester City’s coat tails. Kane needed only 44 seconds to connect with Kyle Walker’s cross and put Spurs ahead before he took his goal tally to 21 after 16 minutes when Dele Alli picked him out and the England striker calmly slotted home left-footed past Artur Boruc.
Bournemouth, bidding for a fourth straight league win to all but secure a second top-flight season, made little impression and Tottenham extended their lead seven minutes after the break when Boruc parried Kane’s shot and Christian Eriksen was on hand to convert for a 3-0 final scoreline.
Second-placed Tottenham could have further bolstered their goal difference but cruised through the final stages to move back within five points of Leicester with seven matches left.
Meanwhile, Manchester United teenager Marcus Rashford wrote another chapter in his fairytale introduction to top-flight football, scoring a brilliant goal to secure a 1-0 win in his first derby match against Manchester City yesterday.
The 18-year-old local hero, who also netted on his Europa League debut and in his first Premier League game, endeared himself further to United fans with a dazzling piece of skill after a quarter of an hour to stun the Etihad Stadium crowd.
After being freed by Juan Mata, Rashford sped past Martin Demichelis, leaving the defender on his backside, before side-footing coolly past the advancing Joe Hart, and the youngster should have been awarded a penalty just before half-time after another rash challenge from the hapless Demichelis.
The home side piled on the pressure in the second half, with Sergio Aguero three times coming close to an equaliser, but failed to find an equaliser and the defeat virtually ends City’s last lingering hopes of regaining the title they won in 2014.
They are fourth, 15 points behind leaders Leicester City and one point clear of their sixth-placed Old Trafford neighbours.
United States goalkeeper Tim Howard will leave Premier League club Everton at the end of the season to join Colorado Rapids as one of their three designated players, the Major League Soccer (MLS) team said yesterday.
Howard, 37, has spent the last 13 years in English soccer, including 10 seasons with Everton for whom he has made a clubrecord 352 top-flight appearances.
“Tim is exceptional, both as a player and a person,” Paul Bravo, technical director and vice-president of soccer operations for the Rapids, said in a statement.
“He proved it at the last World Cup for the US national team and he has been proving it for the last decade in the English Premier League. He has experience at the very pinnacle of the sport, but we feel he has much still to offer on the pitch. We believe this is a pivotal signing for the Colorado Rapids.”
Howard, who has earned 106 caps since making his international debut in 2002, will join the Rapids in MLS’s secondary transfer window on July 4.
“I will remain an Evertonian for life,” Howard was quoted as saying on Everton’s official website. – Reuters