Kane crocked after striking to secure win
HARRy KANe scored the winner and then left the pitch on a stretcher as Tottenham secured victory over struggling Sunderland. Kane’s second goal of the season came to Spurs’ rescue at White Hart Lane but manager Mauricio Pochettino will be sweating on the striker’s fitness after he had to be carried off in the 89th minute. Victory sends Tottenham up to third in the table and maintains their unbeaten start, while Sunderland remain without a win in the Premier League this season. Dele Alli believes Spurs’ dominant display was the perfect response to their midweek Champions League defeat by Monaco. Despite having 31 shots in the match, Spurs had only Kane’s goal following Papy Djilobodji’s error to show for their efforts. Alli said: ‘you always look to try to bounce back after defeat and it was tough to take. It was a great performance by the boys. We should have seen the game off earlier, I felt we dominated from the start.’ Patrick van Aanholt’s late withdrawl from the Sunderland team sparked a mystery which David Moyes only deepened when he refused to offer a detailed explanation. Van Aanholt’s name had been on the initial team sheet presented to referee Mike Dean only for him to be replaced 15 minutes before kick-off. Dean was supplied with a medical note and former Celtic loan star Jason Denayer was promoted from the bench. Denayer seemed to have the job of telling van Aanholt about the switch. Television pictures showed the pair in conversation during the warm-up and van Aanholt’s reaction was one of disbelief. ‘Medical reasons,’ was all Moyes would say after the game. ‘I won’t follow up if you don’t mind. I’d like to be straight. ‘We advised the referee very late on. I got word of something very late. People can get injured in the warm-up. ‘It meant we had to change. We got Jason Denayer some game time. Javier Manquillo went to the left and did okay. So from that point of view we did what we thought was the right thing to do.’ Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino did not find out about the change until the teams were about to leave the dressing room. ‘It was very strange,’ admitted Pochettino. ‘It was at the last moment we knew. When we were nearly going to the tunnel. ‘I don’t know what happened with him. I don’t know if he has some problem, because he was in the starting 11 when we changed the team sheets and at the last moment the delegate told us there was a change. It surprised me but you never know.’ Van Aanholt had been substituted last week after a blow to the head during the defeat against everton, so one explanation could be that late concerns about possible concussion had occurred to someone on Sunderland’s medical team. Van Aanholt refused to comment after the game.