KANE & BALE ROCK PALACE
PAIR STAR WITH TWO EACH
GARETH BALE declared “that’s why I’m here” after putting on an old master-show to take Tottenham to the 100-goal mark for the season.
His two goals, matched by Harry Kane, swept Crystal Palace aside and only Bayern Munich, with 106 goals, have outscored Spurs among the teams in the top five nations in Europe this season.
“Not bad for a defensive and negative team,” manager Jose Mourinho quipped.
On a night when Dele Alli was against relegated to the bench, Bale paid tribute to all the attacking players at the club.
He said: “That is why I came here, the attacking players we have is amazing.
“There is a lot of fighting for places so you have to stay on your toes and have to keep working hard.”
Bale has now scored five goals in his past three games at White Hart Lane after a slow start to his return to the club.
But the 31-year-old knew the good nights would be back soon enough.
“It takes a bit of time sometimes but I’m experienced enough to be patient,” he said.
“I wouldn’t have come if I didn’t think I could contribute. It’s taken time but that’s the reality of football and my body.
“I feel good now, hopefully I can keep this form going.”
Bale opened the scoring in the first half with a simple tap-in from Kane’s cross.
But Tottenham suffered a sucker-punch after dominating the half when Christian Benteke powered in a header in added time.
However, even with Wilfried Zaha spending the interval going through his paces, it was just the warm-up for the feature attraction – the Bale and Kane show.
Just four minutes after the restart, the former spread the ball casually wide to Sergio Reguilon, whose cross was met by Kane at the far post. Kane’s ball back across goal was pounced upon as Bale headed in to double his tally.
Next it was Kane’s turn. He opened his account with a delicious, curling sweep of a rightfoot shot that looped over goalkeeper Vicente Guaita into the far corner from 20 yards out.
Zaha did add to the main entertainment with a fierce shot against the foot of the Tottenham post but the match was only going one way. Erik Lamela replaced a visibly tiring Bale after 70 minutes but continued in the same vein, picking out Son Heung-Min with clever pass in the 78th minute before the old pairing combined for Kane to head in his simple cross.
It was the 14th time the pair have combined to score this season, surpassing Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton’s SAS combination.
Palace boss Roy Hodgson said: “We were heavily punished by the quality of their goals. We’ve got to lick those wounds.
“We’ve made one or two things clear to the group on what is necessary going forward. This is a very tight league and I’d rather be in our position than Fulham’s.” TOTTENHAM (4-2-3-1): Lloris 7; Doherty 5, Sanchez 6, Alderweireld 6, Reguilon 7; Winks 6 (Sissoko 70), Hojbjerg 8; Moura 7, Bale 9 (Lamela 70), Son 7; Kane 8 (Vinicius 80). Goals: Bale 25, 49, Kane 52, 76.
CRYSTAL PALACE (4-4-2): Guaita 6; Ward 6, Kouyate 7, Cahill 6, Van Aanholt 6; Townsend 5 (Schlupp 65, 6), Riedewald 6, Milivojevic 6, Eze 5 (Zaha 46, 7); Ayew 7, Benteke 7 (Mateta 74). Goal: Benteke 45.