KANE ON COURSE T0 BREAK GOAL RECORD
HARRY KANE moved clear of Wayne Rooney into second place on the Premier League’s all-time top scorer list with a goal to resurrect Tottenham’s hopes of a European finish.
The striker, 29, headed home his 209th top-flight finish in first-half stoppage time and now needs to score 51 more to surpass Alan Shearer.
It seems inevitable he will get there in the next two to three years unless injury dictates otherwise.
The only question now is whether he’ll be wearing the white of Spurs or the colours of another club when he does.
His goal here was typical Kane. He stepped back off a defender – this time it was Joel Ward, to give himself a yard in which to meet Pedro Porro’s cross and head the ball firmly past Sam Johnstone in the Crystal Palace goal.
It was by no means the best of his Spurs goals but so composed is Kane in that position that he still made the finish look much easier than it was.
The fact Shearer’s record looks as close as it does for Kane this morning will no doubt play a big part in his decision-making either this summer or next.
Spurs would only want to sell Kane abroad if they agree to let him go after this season, rather than risk losing him for nothing a year later, but were he to take the Bayern Munich or Paris Saint-germain option instead of Manchester United or Chelsea, then he’d be kissing his hopes of the record goodbye.
And no matter how hard it would be for Spurs and their fans to lose him to a Premier League rival, how many would truly begrudge him the chance to end up on the top of the scoring pile?
His goal here was his 26th in 35 appearances this season and, if it wasn’t for Erling Haaland’s return for Manchester City, we’d all be marvelling about that kind of ratio from Kane.
It was a goal that gave Spurs a lead they deserved right on the brink of half-time and lifted them above Brighton into sixth.
The Seagulls play tomorrow, though, and few would bet against them beating the North Londoners to that final Europa League spot given Brighton have three games in hand.
But while the Europa Conference League might seem like a major comedown for a side that has contested the Champions League final within the last four years, Spurs would go into it with a genuine chance of winning.and why not embrace the chance to finally end all that talk about how long it has been since they lifted a trophy?
Such a finish will almost certainly pose another question for Kane as to whether he should give winning a trophy with Spurs one last shot or cut his losses and move on. They could have recorded the first win since Ryan Mason replaced Cristian Stellini by one or two more goals than they did.
But Cristian Romero’s first-half header hit the bar, Johnstone reacted to deny Porro’s dangerous effort and the Palace keeper then did very well to push Heung-min Son wide before saving his shot.
As for Palace, well, they played like a team that has done the job of retaining their
Premier League status and has nothing else to play for.
A floaty effort fromwilfried Zaha drifted just over but Palace rarely threatened.and when they did – defender Joachim Andersen recycling a free-kick with a low cross into the six-yard box – there was Kane to hack the ball to safety.