Harry Kane silences his August doubters with 13-goal September haul but Dele Alli's blip is cause for concern
No goals in August has been followed by 13 for club and country in September, but while he steals all the headlines his England teammate will attract attention for the wrong reasons
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Your support makes all the difference.Another day, another Spurs win fuelled by the brilliance of Harry Kane, who scored two in their 4-0 victory over Huddersfield on Saturday.
Earlier in the season much was again made of Kane not scoring in August, but if we're going to play the game of measuring his goals within the arbitrary construct of calendar months, his record in September is worth a mention. In eight games for club and country Kane has now found the net 13 times, only failing to score in two matches, and one of those was for England, where a profound sense of ennui can kill off even the most potent striking instincts. This was Kane's first game in Huddersfield since the only red card in his professional career, back in 2011 when an absurdly fresh-faced Kane was dismissed while playing on loan for Leyton Orient. He also scored that day. Obviously.
It's also worth mentioning another theme of the discussion around Tottenham this season. Plenty have concentrated, perhaps rightly, on their woes at Wembley, but their last 11 games away from home in all competitions have seen ten victories, one defeat, 34 goals scored and six conceded.
They have a pretty tough run coming up: before the end of November they have games against Real Madrid, Liverpool, Manchester United, Real again, Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund. A little counterintuitively, it might be good news for them that only two of those are at home. Perhaps, instead of renting Wembley, it would have been better for Spurs to simply forfeit their home games and spend a season on the road...
One slight concern for Spurs might be the continued poor form of Dele Alli. He was better in this game than he has been of late, but there's still a spark missing, the sharpness that has made him one of the Premier League's best midfielders over the last couple of seasons.
Furthermore, he knows it too: Alli is playing like a frustrated man at the moment, which might explain if not excuse his absurd dive in the second-half when he realised he had little chance of scoring. This is almost certainly a blip, a minor dip in what has thus far been a terrific career, but for both England and Spurs, the sooner he snaps out of it the better.
Huddersfield, you suspect, will not cry themselves to sleep over this one. It feels clichéd to say it, but their survival will depend not on games against Tottenham but Crystal Palace and Newcastle, teams they've already beaten this season. It's worth making the point that David Wagner's side really weren't that bad in this game, they were just blown away by one of the Premier League's best sides in the opening 23 minutes.
You can't excessively criticise a team for being savaged by Harry Kane, unless you're in the mood for criticising basically every team in the world. Wagner will not be happy with this, but as far as any 4-0 defeat can be shaken off, this is one that's best to be ignored.
Still, there was a pointer for other teams about how to stop Huddersfield. Their intense pressing game is the reason most frequently cited for their brilliant success last season, and while that is certainly one of their key features, it's not where their creativity comes from. While the rest buzz around him, Aaron Mooy is usually their creative hub, a steady deep-lying midfielder who probes and passes and generally is the creative force when a defence needs to be unlocked. Perhaps through no fault of his own, Mooy was extremely quiet against Tottenham, and thus the supply line to Tom Ince and Rajiv van la Parra was cut off.
Ultimately it might not have done them a huge amount of good, but Huddersfield might have fared better had Mooy been able to gain more control of the game.
Teams
Huddersfield Town
Lossl; Smith, Schindler, Zanka, Lowe (Malone 61); Mooy (Billing 61), Hogg (Whitehead 82); Van la Parra, Ince, Kachunga; Depoitre.
Subs not used: Green, Sabiri, Cranie, Hadergjonaj
Tottenham Hotspur
Lloris; Alderweireld, Sanchez, Vertonghen; Trippier (Walker-Peters 82), Winks, Dier, Davies; Alli, Eriksen (Sissoko 76); Kane (Son 86).
Subs not used: Vorm, Nkoudou, Llorente, Foyth.
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