Fulham 0-1 Tottenham: Harry Kane's brilliant turn and finish from 20 yards put Antonio Conte's side back on track in the top-four race... as the England captain draws level with Spurs legend Jimmy Greaves.
HARRY KANE was already a god to Tottenham fans - but last night that immortality was confirmed as he equaled Jimmy Greaves’ record of 266 goals for the club.
Kane’s future dominated the hours leading up to this London derby with news emerging that he is open to starting talks over fresh terms when the transfer window closes.
With 18 months left on his current deal, time will tell if he can truly be convinced to commit again to a club where he has been so prolific but won nothing.
He will now go into those negotiations with no player who has scored more than he has in the North Londoners’ history.
Greaves’ record has stood for 53 years but was always going to go eventually with Kane around.
The England captain matched it with a vintage effort, holding off a defender with his brute strength and finding the corner with laser-like accuracy during first-half stoppage time.
It was enough to give Antonio Conte a much-needed victory that moved his side to within three points of fourth-placed Manchester United, albeit having played a game more.
Support for Kane from the traveling fans was heard within minutes of kick-off, which had been delayed by 15 minutes due to travel disruption - and then a further three due to an issue with ref Paul Tierney’s technical equipment.
The chants of ordering chairman Daniel Levy to “get out of our club” were unmistakable too right from the off.
Conte had urged his side to bring back the “nasty” streak he felt they had last season ahead of this game.
Spurs have become a soft touch of late, conceding a whopping 21 goals in their last ten league games before last night - shipping two or more in nine of those.
In Conte’s own words, he felt Spurs “fought a lot, were suffering a lot, maybe sometimes we didn’t deserve it but at the end, we won” last term, which ended with a top-four spot.
His team looked as if they had taken his advice on board with some crunching challenges early on from Dier and Pierre Emile-Hojbjerg.
Though they were nothing on the one Joao Palhinha put in on Hojbjerg minutes later which earned him a yellow card.
Fulham has been in fine form, winning five games in a row before last week’s last-gasp defeat at Newcastle.
With Spurs struggling at the moment, it was unsurprising that the hosts had the better of the first half.
Hugo Lloris has dropped a few clangers of late but he did well to keep out strikes from Bobby DeCordova-Reid, Pereira, and Harrison Reed.
Son Heung-min’s season has been a disaster compared to last term when he shared the Premier League golden boot with Liverpool’s Mo Salah.
Nothing is going his way and you had to feel for the South Korean as his attempted dribble ended with him losing the ball and catching Kenny Tete on the top of his ankle.
It was a bad tackle and So
