Tottenham’s inspiration Harry Kane had Gary Cahill of Chelsea
scrabbling around White Hart Lane like a city-centre reveller, comedy antlers
askew, still wondering where the last night-bus home leaves from
• Match report: Tottenham Hotspur 5-3 Chelsea
It looks pretty easy being Harry Kane right now. Is there a footballer having more of a ball anywhere in the world than Tottenham’s deliciously irrepressible centre-forward? Here is a player who simply keeps on refusing to find his level, to plateau out, to look down and feel the first little twinge after five months of vertiginous ascent from bit-part midweek man to the most impressive English centre-forward currently playing and one of the stories of the Premier League season so far.
Victories against the league leaders are rare enough but this rollicking 5-3 defeat of a tired-looking Chelsea was a tonic in so many other ways. Not only did it leave Tottenham in fifth place, above Arsenal, this was a win that spoke to a wider clunking into gear of Mauricio Pochettino’s hard-running, hard-pressing methods, executed here by a team with five former youth team players in the starting XI.
Chief among them was Kane, who played the role of goalscorer, folk hero and chief all-round inspirationalist, scoring twice with superbly executed right-foot daisy cutters, winning a penalty in between, setting up another for Nacer Chadli and generally leaving Gary Cahill scrabbling around White Hart Lane like a dazed city-centre reveller, comedy antlers askew, still wondering where the last night-bus home leaves from.
From one nil up to 4-1 down in the space of 22 minutes either side of half time, Chelsea were not exactly mugged as overrun without warning by a Tottenham team that punished a little meekness, some limp closing down, some tiredness certainly. Before the adrenaline of chasing the game kicked in Chelsea did look unusually sluggish with Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fàbregas, the key axis of the season so far, made to squirm and scrabble at times.
For all that, Chelsea took the lead deservedly after 18 minutes. Cutting in from the left Eden Hazard did not so much dribble past Danny Rose as avoid him like a piece of errant street furniture. His cross-shot was played back in by Oscar for Diego Costa to score from the edge of the six-yard box.
There is a similarity of styles between Costaand Kane. Like Costa, Kane tries to have an impact on every part of the game, harrying defenders, dropping into midfield and still providing the point of the attack. Like Costa, he can score all kinds of goals given the opportunity, as he was on 30 minutes by Eden Hazard, who was beaten too easily by a drop of the shoulder as Kane shot hard and low into the corner.
It was a wonderful goal from not very much and another example of how Kane has so often lifted Tottenham this season, a player stretching up towards the outer reaches of his talent and taking his team-mates with him.
From those early Europa League goals at the tail end of the summer, the expectation has been that Kane would inevitably stop scoring. He has not. At some point a hot streak has to be allowed to solidify into something else, and right now he simply looks like a bold, skilful, physically imposing all-round striker of genuine class. He can shoot from distance, take free-kicks and score with his head.
Beyond his rawness, not to mention the passing resemblance to a member of the Christmas Truce XI of 1914, right now it is hard to understand why Kane should have been so widely dismissed as a game but limited trier. With Wayne Rooney playing as a midfielder, deeper, there is no better English centre-forward at the moment. All things being equal, Kane must be a certainty for Roy Hodgson’s next senior England squad in March.
Better still, he seems a happy player too, one to lift both team-mates and crowd, just as here Tottenham’s tyros continued to harry the league leaders. A minute before half-time it was the turn of Rose to score his first goal at White Hart Lane since his Premier League debut four and a half years ago. Moments later Kane drew a lunge from Cahill that became a trip inside the area. Another of those former youth team players, Andros Townsend, scored from the spot.
The second half brought more of the same as Kane continued to run at Cahill mercilessly. His second goal and Tottenham’s fourth came after another neat jink, the ball zinged into the corner with little backlift. Hazard pulled one back on the hour and with 14 minutes left Cahill took a measure of revenge, twice kicking his chief tormentor in the small of the back as he lay by the touchline smothering the ball. It did not end well. Kane picked himself up, took the ball in the right channel, powered into the Chelsea box and squared for Chadli to make it five.
0 comments: