Harry Kane scored his first goal of the season for Tottenham as Spurs roared back from a goal down to hammer early title favorite Manchester City 4-1 in the Premier League on Saturday, AP reports.
City dominated the first half and took a deserved lead at White Hart Lane through Kevin De Bruyne in the 25th minute.
But Eric Dier rifled in a long-distance equalizer on the stroke of halftime and Erik Lamela curled over a free kick for Toby Alderweireld to head home five minutes after the re-start.
Kane, who had yet to find the net for Tottenham after scoring 31 times last season, finally ended his drought in the 61st and Lamela was rewarded for a fine performance with a goal on the break in the 79th.
As morale-boosting as the victory will be for Kane and his teammates, the early kickoff provided yet another reality check for big-spending City.
After a perfect start to the season with five consecutive league victories, City has now lost three of its last four games in all competitions, with injuries and a loss of form clearly playing their part.
City had goalkeeper Joe Hart on the bench in north London, with Wilfredo Caballero picked between the posts, while captain Vicent Kompany’s place at center half went to Nicolas Otamendi. With Yaya Toure being replaced early in the second half because of a hamstring injury, City had lost the spine of its strongest side.
By that stage, Toure’s team was already in deep trouble after making an impressive start to a game that featured several poor offside decisions.
City took the lead after Spurs had lost possession at the other end. Toure led the breakaway before slipping the ball to De Bruyne, who was fractionally offside as he smacked an angled shot past Caballero.
The Belgium international’s third goal in three league starts for the club he joined from Wolfsburg for a reported 50 million pounds ($77 million) suggests his transfer fee was money well-spent.
By contrast, another of City’s big signings, Raheem Sterling, was far less effective with his efforts all afternoon.
Even so, Spurs were struggling to keep up until Dier conjured a goal from nothing.
Caballero did well to parry Son Heung-min’s shot from close range after Kyle Walker had whipped in a low cross from an offside position on the right.
But a stray forward pass by De Bruyne, after the ball had bobbled free, allowed Dier to blast a low shot in off the post from 35 meters.
Not surprisingly. Tottenham came out for the second half with a lot more belief and soon took the lead with the help from some poor goalkeeping.
Lamela pitched his free kick into the box and Caballero was left in no-man’s land between Alderweireld and his goal line as the Spurs defender jumped highest to the nod the ball home.
The hosts were on a roll and the next goal wasn’t long in coming.
Martin Demichelis, who had been booked for dissent at halftime, was lucky to stay on the pitch after an ugly challenge on Lamela as the Argentina midfielder surged toward the City area.
Christian Eriksen clipped the resulting free kick against the joint of post and crossbar from 25 meters, and Kane, from an offside position, was able to steer the rebound into an empty net, with Caballero on the floor.
Lamela completed the misery for City on the break, collecting a cross from Clinton Njie on the right before rounding Caballero and swatting the ball into the net.
Meanwhile, José Mourinho had harsh words for his players after they narrowly avoided defeat at Newcastle, rating Chelsea’s first-half display in their 2-2 draw among the worst he had seen in his seven years at the club.
“There were too many individual performances that were awful,” the Chelsea manager said. “When so many individuals are playing so badly it is impossible for a team to be a team.”
Goals from Ramires and Willian saw the Premier League champions battle back from 2-0 down after Newcastle went ahead through Ayoze Pérez and Georginio Wijnaldum
Mourinho said the game had been saved by the introduction of Ramires and Willian as substitutes. “They took the game to a different level and brought us both the goals to earn the point. Ramires is one of the few players we have who can shoot from outside the box, so he is a good option to bring on when the opposition is using a low block and making it difficult to get into the penalty area.”
Still waiting for his first league win at St James’ Park, in either of his spells in England, Mourinho then went on to suggest part of the reason is that Newcastle pick their matches. “Against some teams they sweat blood, and against others they don’t,” he said. “It is an attitude typical of a team that wins nothing, though I think Newcastle deserved a point today for the way they fought. They gave everything.”
Steve McClaren was not about to argue with that, though he admitted his emotions were all over the place after giving Chelsea such a scare then having to hang on for a point.
“We could have won it at the end, we could have lost it,” he said. “A win would have taken our self-belief up a notch, and we were close, but I think in the end we all have to be satisfied with a great performance.
“The response to the poor performance in midweek was exactly what I was looking for. We showed a togetherness, and I am not just talking about the players but the supporters.
“That was much more like it, and we have set a benchmark now, a standard. That is how we want to play every week.” – Additional report from Guardian.
