The Premier League has seen its fair share of one-season wonders down the years.
Michael Ricketts, Amr Zaki and Michu are just three of the forwards whose stars burned brightly for a single campaign before fading dramatically thereafter. When Harry Kane began this term with just one goal in his first nine top-flight appearances, there was talk that his name could soon be added to the ignominious list of short-lived success stories.
How premature such discussions seem now. Kane's two strikes in Tottenham Hotspur's 4-1 victory over West Ham United on Sunday were his sixth and seventh in his last four Premier League outings, with Jamie Vardy and Romelu Lukaku the only players to have scored more often in the opening 13 encounters of 2015/16.
There is now little doubt that the man who started last term behind Emmanuel Adebayor and Roberto Soldado in the pecking order at White Hart Lane is here to stay.
“Harry Kane worked hard to recover the ball; he showed a strong mentality,” said Pochettino after the game, who was evidently just as happy with his No. 10’s commitment as his goalscoring.
Just as it took him six matches to find the back of the net for the first time this campaign, Kane took a while to get going on Sunday afternoon.
Tottenham in general began slowly, with West Ham – missing playmaker Dimitri Payet through injury – happy to cede possession and sit deep in a compact defensive shape.
Things livened up after a quiet opening 15 minutes, though, with Kane spearheading a side who continue to impress with their blend of physicality and technical prowess in what was arguably their best performance of the season.
The England international is a clinical finisher – something he demonstrated when he lashed the ball past Adrian to open the scoring after showing great strength and awareness to spin past Carl Jenkinson – but he is so much more than a penalty-box poacher.
There were plenty of neat one-touch lay-offs and clever flicks around the corner here, with Christian Eriksen, Son Heung-min and Dele Alli all benefiting from Kane’s ability to drop deep and link the play.
As Pochettino eluded to, he also led the hosts’ pressing by closing down the visiting centre-backs Winston Reid and James Tomkins, while his restored confidence was evidenced by some ambitious but accurate switches of play in the second half, drifting out to the left and firing pinpoint passes to the feet of Kyle Walker and Son over on the right flank.
On days like this, it is easy to see why the 22-year-old has drawn comparisons with Teddy Sheringham, the former Tottenham striker who, like Kane, made up for a lack of pace with plenty of guile and an astute football brain.
That absence of speed at centre-forward means it is vital that Pochettino’s charges get runners in advance of Kane to push opposing defensive lines back towards their own goal.
That is exactly what they did against West Ham; one of the hallmarks of the Argentine’s Tottenham outfit is their energy and constant movement, something that brings out the best in their line-leading local lad.
Things could have been even better for Kane, who should really have been celebrating his third career hat-trick at the final whistle: a gilt-edged opportunity was spurned towards the end of the first period, with the striker scuffing a shot horribly wide after being put through one-on-one by Alli.
Given that it is less than a month since Kane was forced to fend off flash-in-the-pan accusations, having to settle for two goals rather than three in a key London derby is a rather positive position to be in.
The doubters, for now, have been silenced. As Tottenham’s push for the Champions League places continues apace, Kane has proven that his incredible breakout campaign was no fluke.
sports@thenational.ae
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Omar Yabroudi's factfile
Born: October 20, 1989, Sharjah
Education: Bachelor of Science and Football, Liverpool John Moores University
2010: Accrington Stanley FC, internship
2010-2012: Crystal Palace, performance analyst with U-18 academy
2012-2015: Barnet FC, first-team performance analyst/head of recruitment
2015-2017: Nottingham Forest, head of recruitment
2018-present: Crystal Palace, player recruitment manager
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Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
RESULT
Deportivo La Coruna 2 Barcelona 4
Deportivo: Perez (39'), Colak (63')
Barcelona: Coutinho (6'), Messi (37', 81', 84')
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
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Mental%20health%20support%20in%20the%20UAE
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HER%20FIRST%20PALESTINIAN
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How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
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The five pillars of Islam
Step by step
2070km to run
38 days
273,600 calories consumed
28kg of fruit
40kg of vegetables
45 pairs of running shoes
1 yoga matt
1 oxygen chamber
The specs
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now
SPECS
Engine: Two-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 235hp
Torque: 350Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Price: From Dh167,500 ($45,000)
On sale: Now
Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
Know your cyber adversaries
Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.
Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.
Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.
Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.
Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.
Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.
Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.
Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.
Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.
Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.
Company%20Profile
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Famous left-handers
- Marie Curie
- Jimi Hendrix
- Leonardo Di Vinci
- David Bowie
- Paul McCartney
- Albert Einstein
- Jack the Ripper
- Barack Obama
- Helen Keller
- Joan of Arc
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
Company%20Profile
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
'Shakuntala Devi'
Starring: Vidya Balan, Sanya Malhotra
Director: Anu Menon
Rating: Three out of five stars
Bullet%20Train
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What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women & the Food That Tells Their Stories
Laura Shapiro
Fourth Estate
