Tottenham Hotspur was gushing after star striker Harry Kane returned to lead them back to goals and the win column in a 2-0 win over West Bromwich Albion on Sunday in North London.
“Harry Kane is so, so important for us,” said Heung-min Son, who joined Kane on the score sheet in the win. “He is one of the best strikers in the world. It was only a couple of games but we missed him a lot. Him coming back and scoring straight away, it’s what we needed. I missed him.”
True forward love, there. That’s what you get from Son and Kane.
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Jose Mourinho knows where his bread is buttered, as Kane took five of Tottenham’s 13 shot attempts in the win and scored off a slick Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg feed.
The Spurs boss relished the return and the win, as well as Kane’s new status as the second-top scorer in club history. He’s level with Bobby Smith with 208 goals, with both doing it in 317 club appearances for a 0.66 per game clip.
Kane is 58 goals off Jimmy Greaves’ all-time lead, the legend doing it at a 0.7 per game clip. Kane has scored 64 goals since the start of the 2018-19 season despite missing plenty of game time so the record seems destined for his resume provided he doesn’t leave Tottenham.
“Harry Kane is a special player and of course in the history of the club means a lot,” Mourinho said. “He will beat every possible record. You spoke about Harry. You spoke about Pierre. I agree, we had very good individual performances today but again I repeat the most important thing was the compromise of the team.”
As for that team, they move ahead of Chelsea on a single goal of difference in the concession column.
Tottenham has a tough rest of February, an FA Cup visit to Everton on Wednesday before heading to Man City for a big league match on Saturday. A Europa League Round of 32 tie with Wolfsberger is then sandwiched around a Feb. 21 derby at West Ham.
WATCH TOTTENHAM – WEST BROM FULL MATCH REPLAY
“In this moment it’s complicated,” Mourinho said. “We played two matches against Liverpool, two matches against Chelsea, and next week we play the second match against Man City so I’m not saying the other matches are easy — of course they are not — but the reality is our fixture congestion against the best teams is pretty obvious. We are going to fight the second half. Honestly in the Europa League I have a special feeling that we can do something important and in the Premier League we will finish where we belong.”
His relative downplaying of the league while chatting up the UEL is interesting, especially with the notorious trophy hunter within one win of the League Cup and still alive in the FA Cup (for a few more days at a minimum).
Mourinho also said that the club is not worried about signing Heung-min Son to a new deal due to the COVID-19 pandemic affecting plenty of aspects of the future.
“No problem with Son. Still two or three years on his contract,” Mourinho said via Football.London. “Right now with the Covid it’s not the right time to be talking about new contracts when people are losing their jobs across the world. I think when the world is normal again then Son and the club will sort it out quickly.”
