Harry Kane and Heung-min Son help superb Tottenham thrash Stoke in record-breaking win
Tottenham Hotspur 5 Stoke City 1: Kane scored a second-half brace as Spurs emphatically ended their poor run of form with a morale-boosting win at Wembley
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Your support makes all the difference.“Can we play you every week?” the last of the Tottenham supporters at Wembley Stadium enquired after this match had just finished. They have a point. Spurs had seen off Stoke 4-0 in their past three encounters and won by the same margin yet again, as Stoke became the first side in Premier League history to lose by four goals or more to a side four times in a row.
Spurs have repeatedly struggled to break down opponents content to arrive at Wembley with ten-men determinedly stationed behind the ball, but here they rose to the challenge. Harry Kane scored a confidence-boosting brace and Heung-min Son both scored and assisted, as well as fizzing in the cross which Stoke captain Ryan Shawcross deflected into his own net for Tottenham’s opener.
The South Korean was the true star of the show, excelling in a wide position out on the left and terrorising the 18-year-old full-back Thomas Edwards, who was handed a tough task by Mark Hughes and struggled. Encouragingly for Spurs both Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen — who scored the fifth — also impressed, as Spurs reverted to the 4-2-3-1 formation which served Mauricio Pochettino so well in the first stage of his tenure.
“Son was very good,” Pochettino said approvingly of his forward’s performance. “I don’t know what other people say about him but we make sure he gets the credit he deserves, not only because he is a great player but because he is a great professional and a great kid. It’s very good to work with him.”
Given the poor form of the two teams, who had both won just one of their last five Premier League matches, the game started in suitably scruffy fashion with plenty of lung-busting runs forward but precious little quality in the final third.
So it was appropriate that the opening goal was scruffier still. Son escaped the attentions of Edwards down the left and fizzed a low cross into the box, which careered onto the head of Ryan Shawcross via Kurt Zouma’s outstretched boot. Jack Butland was hopelessly deceived as the ball ricocheted past him and — for the first time in their last five league matches — Spurs had the lead.
They appeared to have the game by the scruff of the next, too, as they began to regain their attacking cohesion. Son went close from the edge of the area, with an exasperated Eriksen in space on his left. Mousa Dembele forced a good save from Butland with a horrible, wobbling low shot. And a stretching Kane nodded wide, only to see the linesman with his flag in the air.
Moments later he was put through once again, running onto a fine through-ball from Son and played onside by young Edwards. He had the entire goal at his mercy and time to compose himself, but rolled his low shot inches wide of Butland’s far post. Wembley let out a collective gasp: nobody looked more shocked than Kane himself.
If the first-half was ultimately defined by Tottenham’s profligacy in front of goal, the second exhibited just how ruthless they can be. The outstanding Son soon doubled Tottenham’s advantage, charging onto Alli's superb thrpugh-ball forward and belting a low finish past the advancing Butland.
And, moments later, Kane finally had his goal. Exhibiting the supreme mental resilience that has defined his young career, he threw himself at Ben Davies’ cross into the box just moments after shanking a close-range finish high over the crossbar, heading the ball between Butland’s legs and into the back of the net.
He wasn’t done there. Kieran Trippier burst into space and looked to sweep in a pass for Son to run onto, which Edwards reached first. But the teenager succeeded only in inadvertently teeing up Kane, who calmly slotted home from the very edge of the penalty box. Not only was it Kane's 50th goal of the calendar year, but it also takes him to to the top of the Premier League’s top scorers table, alongside Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.
It got even better for Tottenham as first Erik Lamela came on and went close, and then Eriksen applied salt to the already fatal wound by scoring a fifth. Again Son was at the heart of the move, as he split Stoke's defence with a killer pass with Eriksen calmly applying the finish.
It proved to be significant as Shawcross atoned for his early own-goal with a late consolation, only for that chastising Premier League record to remain. “I didn't see that second-half coming,” Hughes lamented afterwards. “I was encouraged by what I saw in the first-half, but it can’t just be a 45-minute performance and later on we got a little bit strung out and ragged. It certainly wasn’t a complete performance from us and you can see that illustrated by the margin of defeat.”
Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris, Trippier, Dier, Vertonghen, Davies, Winks (Sissoko 78), Dembele, Eriksen, Alli (Lamela 67), Son (Llorente 86), Kane. Subs not used: Rose, Vorm, Foyth, Aurier.
Stoke: Butland, Zouma, Shawcross, Wimmer, Thomas Edwards (Crouch 70), Allen (Affelay 80), Fletcher, Pieters, Shaqiri (Cameron 75), Diouf, Choupo-Moting. Subs not used: Berahino, Adam, Sobhi, Grant.
Referee: Roger East (Wiltshire)