Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 West Bromwich Albion: Harry Kane scores on return

Harry Kane and Son Heung-min scored six times in the same Premier League match this season.

Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho said Harry Kane will break “every possible record” after returning from injury to inspire Spurs to victory against West Brom.

Kane returned earlier than expected due to ankle problems and helped end the Spurs’ three-game losing streak. With his 208th goal, the captain of Tottenham Hotspur, England, could join Bobby Smith and become Spurs’ second-highest scorer in history after Jimmy Greaves.

Tottenham failed to score in either match. Kane, 27, missed his shot, but managed to work a pass from Pierre-Emile Heubjerg into his own goal early in the second half to break Albion’s tenacity.

“Harry Kane is a special player in the history of the club,” Mourinho told BT Sport.

“He is one of the best strikers in the world. The team is very dependent on him, we cannot hide that.

“It’s the goals he can score, the passes he can make, the connecting play he has, that personality that players like him can have, and he’s still an important influence for us.

Kane, who is 13th in the Premier League this season, beat his attacking partner Son Heung-min after four minutes before the South Korean striker sealed the Spurs victory with a brilliant finish on a pass from Lucas Moura.

With the victory, Spurs climbed two places to seventh, four points away from the Champions League. That position and deficit could change on Sunday, however, when Chelsea and Liverpool are in action.

West Brom remain 19th, 11 points behind Burnley’s 17th despite better defense.

Mbaye Diagne, who recently signed a loan deal, was unlucky not to score his first goal for the Baggies on three occasions. The Senegalese striker fired a free kick in the first half that was saved by Spurs captain Hugo Lloris and saw two goals disallowed for offside in the second half.

Kane is in the record books.

• Tottenham: With 208 goals scored, he and Bobby Smith are second behind Jimmy Greaves (266).
• Premier League: Ninth with 156 goals – 104 behind Alan Shearer (260)
• England: Sixth with 32 goals – 21 behind Wayne Rooney (53).

Kane’s goal against West Brom was his 20th in all Spurs games this season, a milestone he has reached in the past seven seasons. If he continues to perform and stay safe at Spurs, he could break Greaves’ record when he turns 30.

Of the eight strikers above Kane in the Premier League list of top tacklers, only Sergio Aguero (180) is active, while none of the five strikers ahead of him in the English Premier League table have played so far.

Kane and Co – Harry is back to launch the Spurs.

Before Sunday’s match, both teams were more or less upset. Spurs finished top of the Premier League two months ago, but dropped to ninth place, seven points behind the top four, while West Brom is increasingly unsettled.

The return of Kane in the first minute gave the hosts an early boost, and as in the past, they showed far greater superiority with him than in the two games in which he was absent.

Since the 27-year-old became a regular at Spurs in the 2014/15 season, Tottenham won 56 percent of their Premier League games when he was available, but only 41 percent without him. Their goals-per-game average has increased from 1.9 to 1.2 when he is out.

Tottenham failed to score against Brighton and Chelsea during Harry Kane’s brief absence.

These inconsistencies became even more pronounced under Mourinho – Spurs’ percentage of wins in the league went from 51.4 percent with him in the team to 30 percent without him and they lost five of their ten missed games, while the number of points and goals per game went from 1.8 to 1.1.

If the opponent’s limitations are a factor, Spurs did well with a talented striker at the other end and had more hits in the opponent’s penalty area in the first half (15) than in Thursday’s 1-0 defeat of Chelsea.

Kane could have scored a hat-trick in the first half, but his finishing was unusually wasteful. He missed a chance with a double behind the goal and fired another free kick before forcing a save from Sam Johnstone.

He made up for it by making a perfect running save to avoid offside on his first goal. He also set up Son for a first chance that Johnstone saved with his feet, and also had his share of a quick breakout that ended in South Korea’s second goal.

Kane continues to stress his importance to a Tottenham side that seems truly lost without him. The son insists the return of his attacking partner will have an impact on him and the team.

“Harry Kane is so, so important for us. It was only a few games, but we really missed him. He came back and scored a goal right away, and that was exactly what we needed. I missed him,” the son said.

Still no success against Mourinho for Allardyce.

West Brom coach Sam Allardyce left playmaker Mateus Pereira on the bench to strengthen Albion and solve the defensive problems of the team, which gave up 54 goals in 22 games.

It worked too, as Albion kept the hosts at bay for long periods, but had to rely mainly on Kane’s recklessness in the first half and a brilliant save by Johnstone to thwart a Serge Aurier header.

Had they shown such a strong defense in previous games, West Brom might not have found themselves in the desperate position they were in.

Three clear chances were missed by striker Diagne, on loan from Galatasaray. However, the two goals he scored – a close-range header and a finish – both came from an offside position. Standing on the right side of the Tottenham Hotspur back line, he got too close to Lloris, who nevertheless saved well.

West Brom finally succumbed against Spurs in the first quarter of the second half. It was another defeat for Allardyce against Mourinho, whom he had never beaten in 13 attempts – three draws and ten defeats.

Allardyce will feel buoyed by the impact of a couple of transfer acquisitions – Dianne’s fiery running suggests he will score goals at this level, Robert Snodgrass showed good crosses and Ainsley Maitland-Niles made his debut with confidence, if not euphemism.

But after just one win in 13 games, and with teams above the relegation zone continuing to pick up points regularly, the Baggies need a miraculous turnaround to avoid an immediate return to the championship.

“This mistake cannot be tolerated,” she said…. ….

Tottenham coach Jose Mourinho told Sport: “I am not used to losing three games in a row and Tottenham is the same, so we have to admit that it was not a week where we felt very, very comfortable, but I was very positive because of what the players showed in that match. I knew they were going to do it.

“I think we played very well, but I’m talking about the mentality the players brought to the match.

Moura was all Mourinho

“The players are together, the players want to win, they are committed and today they went out on the field with only one idea in mind: to win the game. That’s what I liked the most, the way the players approached it.

West Brom coach Sam Allardyce told Sport: “The downside is that you get goals against after keeping them off you in the first half. To see Harry Kane in our unmarked box. That failure at this level just shouldn’t happen. We have to stop it at the source.

“Then we let them go from our box to ours without anyone scoring. We scored a goal, it was disallowed, we scored again and it was disallowed, but at least we scored two ‘goals’ here. If we have the right service in the box, we have a man who can score.

“Until we close the back door, a better life will be hard for us. That’s right, the window is closed, we have what we have.” We need to start winning games and we can’t do that if we keep losing. We need an undefeated game with more wins than draws.

No more mourning on Sunday for bags – Statistics

• West Brom have yet to win a single game in their last eight Premier League matches on Sunday and lost seven times.
• Tottenham have lost only one of their 27 Premier League home games against promoted teams (W24 D2), a 3-1 defeat against Wolves in December 2018.
• In 2016/17 alone (14), Tottenham Hotspur’s son Heung-min has scored more goals in a Premier League season than the 13 he has scored so far this season.
• Spurs’ Harry Kane has scored in 13 of his last 15 Premier League appearances against a promoted team (14 goals), including in each of his last six games – the first player to do so since Mohamed Salah between January and December 2018.
• Only Callum Wilson (40%) and Dominic Calvert-Lewin (38%) have scored more goals in the Premier League this season than Spurs duo Kane and Son, who both scored 13 times (13/36 – 36%).
• Substitute Dane Scarlett (16 and 320) has become Tottenham Hotspur’s youngest player in the Premier League.

What is the next step?

Tottenham travel to Everton for the fifth round of the FA Cup on Wednesday (20:15 GMT), before travelling to Premier League leader Manchester City on Saturday (17:30 GMT).

West Bromwich Albion meet Manchester United in the Premier League on Tuesday next (14:00 GMT).

The player of the game

HeubjergPierre-Emile Heubjerg

West Bromwich Albion

1. Team number30PseudoMaitland-Niles
2. Team Number 1 Player Name Johnstone
3. Team number12Players nameMateus Pereira
4. Team number18 Name of the playerGallagher
5. Team number 5Player nameBartley
6. Team number 17Player name Diagne
7. Team number23Snodgrass Name of the player
8. Team number14 Player nameTownsend
9. Team number6Player nameAjayi
10. Team number35Yokuslu Player name
11. Team number22Peltier Players name
12. Team number29Player nameSubsidy
13. Team number10Fillips Player name
14. Team number19 Player nameSawyers

Links to.

Tottenham

4-2-3-1 training

1Lloris

24Aurier6D Sánchez4Alderweireld33Davies

28Ndombele5Højbjerg

11Lamela27Lucas Moura7Son Heung-Min

10Kane.

• 1Lloris
• 24OpenReplace for Doertiyat 68’minutes
• 6D Sanchez
• 4OldWire
• 33Notices
• 28Hdombele
• 5Heubjerg
• 11LamelaLit and 64MinutesSwitch àBergwijnat 74’minutes
• 27Lucas Moura
• 7Son Heung-Min replaced Scarlett after 90+3’minutes
• 10Kane.

Replaces

• 2oherty
• 9Ball
• 12-Heart
• 14Rodon
• 15Animal
• 17Cissoko
• 23Bergenwine
• 45Alves Plus
• 53Scarlett

Brom West

Training 4-1-4-1

1Johnstone

22Peltier6Ajayi5Bartley14Townsend

19Sawing machines

23Snodgrass30Maitland-Niles18Gallagher29Grant

17Diagnosis

• 1Johnstone
• 22Peltier
• 6Ajayi
• 5Bartley
• 14Townsend
• 19SawyersReplacement of the Jokusluat 78’min
• 23SnodgrassSubstitution of Costa Pereirat 80’minutes
• 30Maitland-Niles
• 18GallagherBocking on 90Minutes
• 29SubsidyPhillipsat Substitution 69’minutes
• 17Diagnosis

Replaces

• 2Furlong.
• 4Canoe Robson
• 7Robinson.
• 8Livermore
• 10 Phillips
• 12 Costa Pereira
• 25Key
• 27O’Shea
• 35 Yokuslu

Living Text

1. The match ends, Tottenham Hotspur 2, West Bromwich Albion 0.
2. End of second half, Tottenham Hotspur 2, West Bromwich Albion 0.
3. Conor Gallagher (West Bromwich Albion) has been booked for foul play.
4. Davinson Sanchez (Tottenham Hotspur) hits a free kick on the opponent’s half.
5. Conor Gallagher (West Bromwich Albion) is penalized after committing a foul.
6. Substitution of Tottenham Hotspur. Dane Scarlett replaces Son Heung-min.
7. Davinson Sanchez (Tottenham Hotspur) is penalized after committing a foul.
8. Mbai Diagne (West Bromwich Albion) takes a free kick on the left wing.
9. Failed attempt. Semi Ajayi (West Bromwich Albion) takes a shot from the center of the box, high and wide to the left. Set up by Mateus Pereira from a given situation.
10. Lucas Moura (Tottenham Hotspur) is penalized after committing a foul.
11. Conor Gallagher (West Bromwich Albion) hits a free kick on the opponent’s half.
12. Ben Davies (Tottenham Hotspur) is penalized after committing a foul.
13. Ainsley Maitland-Niles (West Bromwich Albion) takes a free kick on the right wing.
14. Lucas Moura (Tottenham Hotspur) takes a free kick on the left wing.
15. Okie Yokuslu (West Bromwich Albion) is penalized after committing a foul.
16. Offside line, West Bromwich Albion. Matheus Pereira plays a forward pass but Mbaye Diana is caught offside.
17. One attempt missed. Good Yokuslu (West Bromwich Albion)’s header from the center of the area is close but misses to the right. Matt Phillips crosses a play.
18. Replacing, West Bromwich Albion. Matheus Pereira replaces Robert Snodgrass.
19. Davinson Sanchez (Tottenham Hotspur) is penalized after committing a foul.
20. Mbaye Diagne (West Bromwich Albion) is awarded a free kick on the opponent’s half.