Kane sets Premier League goal record
LONDON — Harry Kane set a new record for the most Premier League goals in a year and will finish as Europe’s leading scorer for 2017 after the Tottenham Hotspur forward bagged a brace against Southampton on Tuesday.
Kane’s 22nd-minute header at Wembley was his 37th goal of the year, moving him past Alan Shearer’s previous Premier League record, which was set when he played for Blackburn Rovers in 1995.
But Kane wasn’t happy to settle for that milestone and scored again with a close-range finish in the 39th minute.
His second goal took him to 55 for club and country in 2017 - lifting him above Barcelona’s Lionel Messi to become Europe’s top-scorer over the last 12 months in the five major countries (England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France).
Messi, who has 54 goals this year, can’t catch Kane as Barcelona don’t play again until 2018.
Kane admitted he was keen to break Shearer’s record after he moved level with the former England star with a hat-trick in Tottenham’s win at Burnley on Saturday.
The 24-year-old reached his landmark 37th goal in 36 league appearances, while Shearer played 42 times when he set the old record with 36 goals.
Shearer was quick to congratulate Kane, tweeting: “You’ve had a magnificent 2017 @HKane. You deserve to hold the record of most @premierleague goals in a calendar year. Well done and keep up the good work.”
Kane scored 21 league goals from January to May last season and has 16 this term.
He netted 18 times in home games and 19 in away fixtures, while May was his highest scoring month with eight goals.
The England international now has 22 goals for Tottenham in all competitions this season.
Other high-scoring Premier League stars over a calendar year include Robin van Persie, who notched 35 for Arsenal in 2011, and Thierry Henry, who struck 34 times for Arsenal in 2004.
Ruud van Nistelrooy scored 30 for Manchester United in 2003 and Les Ferdinand hit the same tally for QPR and Newcastle United in 1995.
Meanwhile, Jesse Lingard stepped off the bench to rescue Manchester United with a brace as they came from behind to draw 2-2 with Burnley at Old Trafford on Boxing Day.
The visitors made a dream start after Marcos Rojo was booked in the second minute for a foul on JohannBerg Gudmundsson, whose free-kick was lashed home at the far post by Barnes after United failed to clear their lines.
Scott Arfield was inches away from doubling their lead on 12 minutes when he steered Gudmundsson’s cross from the right just over the crossbar and onto the roof of the net.
The Red Devils had a couple of half-chances before Luke Shaw went close in the 17th minute as space opened up for him on the left, but his driven effort from 22 yards out was parred away by Nick Pope.
The Burnley keeper pulled off an even better save four minutes later when he clawed away Paul Pogba’s header from a corner, and it proved crucial as his team went 2-0 up on 36 minutes. David De Gea had no answer to Defour’s curling free-kick which found the top-left corner of the net from 25 yards out.
The hosts almost halved the deficit two minutes later from Pogba’s exquisite diagonal ball that found Rashford on the left, with the forward cutting inside and beating Pope but Ben Mee was there to clear off the line.
Pogba then came close two minutes before halftime with a curling shot from 20 yards out that flew narrowly past the right post, although the Clarets were deserved leaders at the break.
United were quickly on the attack after the restart with Pogba flashing a shot a few feet over the bar from 25 yards out in the 46th minute, while halftime substitute Lingard somehow failed to score five minutes later when he steered Ashley Young’s cross from the right against Pope’s face and onto the bar from two yards out.
But he struck just two minutes later with a sublime finish from another Young cross, which was flicked into the bottom-left corner of the net off his heel.
Pogba looked to replicate Defour’s feat on 70 minutes as he curled a free-kick just over the bar from an almost identical position to the opener, before Mkhitaryan steered a header well off target from Young’s cross on the right 10 minutes later.
Just when it looked like Burnley would record a rare win at the Theatre of Dreams, Lingard popped up at the death to fire home from 16 yards out after Juan Mata’s free-kick dropped at his feet.