Tottenham vs Swansea match report: Superb Spurs run five past woeful Swans at White Hart Lane
Tottenham Hotspur 5 Swansea 0: Harry Kane's brace and Heung-Min Son’s spectacular strike on the stroke of half-time helped guide the home side to an impressive victory
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Your support makes all the difference.Tottenham may well be paying Harry Kane a colossal fee of approximately £30 million in wages over the next five and a half years but he gave yet another example of why it just may well be money well spent.
The 23-year-old local hero committed his long-term future to the club until 2022 this week and then proved exactly what he brings to the team: goals.
His brace ensured Swansea had no chance in this game and took his tally to six in five matches since his return from an ankle injury. It provided a welcome relief to Mauricio Pochettino who had seen his men claim just one victory in 10 matches, a sequence that had left them seven points short of the Premier League pacesetters and hit them with an early exit from the Champions League.
Kane opened the scoring with a 39th-minute penalty awarded in somewhat controversial fashion after Dele Alli had gone down easily in the box and then, after Heung-Min Son’s spectacular strike on the stroke of half-time, Kane added a second four minutes after the break. Christian Eriksen then rounded off a hugely impressive afternoon for the hosts with two further goals.
While this was delight for Tottenham, it was more despair for Bob Bradley and Swansea City who showed nothing like the attacking prowess they had seen when fighting back for a memorable 5-4 victory over Crystal Palace last weekend.
Tottenham had been expected to include Toby Alderweireld after injury but the centre back was again missing meaning just one change of Danny Rose for Kevin Wimmer at left back was made.
After a slow start, Tottenham hit their stride with Alli seeing a deflected effort from Kane’s pass gathered by Lukasz Fabianski but it quickly became a question of when, not if, Tottenham would open the scoring.
England striker Kane appeared full of confidence after settling his future and his fine header from Walker’s cross was well pushed over by Fabianski as the hosts started to turn the screw.
Walker was next to go close as his run from the right resulted in a shot the Swansea keeper again had to push over for a corner.
Victor Wanyama then drilled a shot from the edge of the area straight at Fabianski while Heung-Min Son missed the target from a Kane pass.
Christian Eriksen’s free kick was too close to Fabianski as Tottenham’s chances continued and Swansea struggled to get out of their own half.
Eventually Spurs took the lead but only after a big decision by Jonathan Moss. Alli was going away from goal when he was adjudged to have been tripped by former Spurs player Kyle Naughton just inside the area. Moss took an age to award the spot kick and once he did, Kane was coolness personified as he powered into the bottom left hand corner.
Moments later the instrumental Alli went close to a second with Fabianski bravely denying him with his legs but a second Tottenham goal arrived on the stroke of half-time with an impressive acrobatic volley from Son following Eriksen’s pass.
Swansea attempted to turn things around again for the second week running as Fernando Llorente, the hero of the Palace victory, came on at the break.
But it made little difference this time around as Kane made it 3-0 within four minutes of the restart with a composed finish from 15 yards as the ball landed perfectly for him after Son had done the hard work on the break.
Kane was denied a hat-trick by an offside flag and then by an impressive stop by Fabianski but this was only ever going to get worse for Swansea and so it proved.
A fourth did arrive on 70 minutes as Eriksen headed in from close range after Son’s cross had fallen perfectly to him and the Dane also scored the fifth in injury time from close range following sub Moussa Sissoko’s pass.
"I think we fully deserved the result," said Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino. "We dominated and played well. They didn't shoot and they didn't create chances. It was a very good performance. I'm happy and we needed it - a big victory after Chelsea.
"But I don't believe it was the best performance of the season. Against City we were better. It's important to be close to the top."
"We were second best too often," admitted Swansea manager Bob Bradley. "When they pressed us we weren't able to played the first pass out of pressure. We knew it would be hard to take points and we have to focus on an important run of games between now and next year."
Tottenham Hotspur (4-2-3-1): Lloris; Walker, Dier, Vertonghen, Rose; Wanyama, Dembele (Winks 83); Eriksen, Alli, Son (Sissoko 71); Kane.
Subs not used: Vorm, Nkoudou, Onomah, Wimmer, Carter-Vickers.
Swansea City (4-3-3): Fabianski; Naughton, Amat, Van der Hoorn, Taylor; Cork, Fulton (Llorente 46), Fer; Barrow (Routledge 71), Sigurdsson, Montero (Baston 63).
Subs not used: Mawson, Britton, Nordfeldt, Routledge, Rangel.
Referee: Jonathan Moss
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