Spurs march on after deadly duo dazzle yet again
FOR more than 75 of t e n t or t urous minutes, the pair who have brought belief back to Tottenham Hotspur were players on the margins, struggling to make an imprint against a side with all of the ideas.
But success in this sport comes in all shapes and sizes, and so it was that Harry Kane and Son Heung-min found their winning combination once again.
An angular header from the edge of Burnley’s area, navigated towards the space into which Son had quietly stolen, and, suddenly, Jose Mourinho had a very substantial smile on his face.
Kane’s initial header, from an Erik Lamela corner which had seemed to be sailing beyond him, was the really clever part — reinforcing that sublime and extraordinary capacity t he insatiable centre-forward has for setting others up, too.
He was operating deep for a lot of the night, trying to prize things open. He was also Tottenham’s best di s t r i butor by s ome distance.
‘I think we are at a stage where a lot of us have been together for four, five years,’ said Kane after the final whistle.
‘The additions this year have been great and we are all getting more experienced. We know, with the players we have got, we can do something special.’
Mind you, it was an opening 45 minutes crying out for Gareth Bale, on the bench again, because Spurs were ponderous, slow and horizontal in their build-up.
Route one was Mourinho’s prime line of attack.
Toby Alderweireld found the long ball beyond James Tarkowski for Kane in the game’s first five minutes, by which time Josh Brownhill had already been booked for bringing down an advancing Ndombele.
But beyond a deflected Lucas Moura shot, Nick Pope was untroubled.
When they tried to exploit the flanks, Spurs lacked the quality of service from Matt Doherty and Ben Davies and Burnley began to look more threatening than their visitors.
Ashley Barnes was a yard offside when he turned a ball in on 20 minutes but Kevin Long drew a sharp save from Hugo Lloris from 20 yards while Johann Gudmundsson also forced the Frenchman i nto action after cutting in and firing low.
Before an hour was gone, Alderweireld had become his si de’s protector- i n- chief — sticking out a foot to divert wide a Barnes shot from a Chris Wood k n o c k down. Fr o m Ashley Westwood’s ensuing corner, Tarkowski headed over.
Bale sat implacably in the stand. His arrival against West Ham six days ago did not exactly enhance things for Mourinho, who brought on Lamela for the ineffectual Lucas Moura before the hour.
But some kind of inspiration was required for a game which actually seemed to slipping away. Yet another aerial assault saw Tarkowski’s header f r om a Westwood corner cleared off the line by Kane. However, class told, desperate though that will have felt for Burnley. A driving run at their defence from Son brought a monumental block from Long moments before the corner that brought the South Korean’s eighth goal of the season.
It took him top of the Premier League goalscorers’ chart. His smile lit up the Lancashire night and for very good reason.