Harry Kane makes history as Tottenham stun Manchester City

Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane celebrates after scoring during a Premier League football match against Manchester City at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Sunday. [AFP/YONHAP]

Harry Kane's 15th-minute winner to lead Tottenham Hotspur to victory over Manchester City on Sunday will go down in the history books twice over — firstly because it made him Spurs’ all-time top goal scorer and secondly because for the first time in recent memory it gave Arsenal fans a reason to cross the north London divide and cheer for their bitterest rivals.

Sunday’s 1-0 win came just two weeks after Tottenham went up north and were handed a 4-2 loss at the hands of City, a result that the bookies certainly expected a repeat of in London this week.

Instead, it was the Harry Kane show again as the England captain punched early to knock an uncharacteristically ineffective City on to the back foot.

The goal was neatly set up by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, who intercepted a pass from Rodri and created space before slotting it through to Kane on his right. The veteran goal scorer took a single touch to hammer it into the far corner for his record-breaking 267th Tottenham goal across all competitions and a spot alongside join Alan Shearer and Wayne Rooney in the highly exclusive 200-Premier-League-goals club.

The goal lit a spark under Spurs, seemingly inspiring in the entire lineup the aggression that is so often missing in Antonio Conte’s squad. That aggression went too far at times, with Cristian Romero constantly shutting down Erling Haaland with some heavy tackles, eventually ending in a double yellow card after a second foul on Jack Grealish and a sending off in the 87th minute.

Even with Spurs down to 10 men for the final eight minutes and the fire starting to go out, City were unable to appear remotely threatening.

Assistant manager Cristian Stellini, filling in for Conte who underwent surgery last week, saw the writing on the wall long before Romero headed for an early shower, started to shore up his defense, pulling out first Ivan Perisic and then Son Heung-min, who was a constant threat and played with far more energy than in recent fixtures, for fresher legs and more defensive players. Dejan Kulusevski went after the red card, allowing Davinson Sanchez to come on and fill the gap in the back line.

The win pulls Tottenham within one point of fourth place after Newcastle drew with West Ham on Saturday, while the loss for City allowed for a very loud sigh of relief over at the Emirates as Arsenal’s surprise loss to Everton on Saturday ended up not harming their five-point lead at the top of the table.

The star of the night, though, was Kane’s coronation as Tottenham’s all-time top goal scorer, a title previously held by the seemingly insurmountable Jimmy Greaves. Of the tens of thousands of players that have pulled on a Lilywhites shirt since Tottenham was founded 140 years ago, Kane alone rose to the top of the pack on Sunday.

“Harry Kane is football,” Stellini said after the game. “In his DNA, you can smell every time he can show the best football you can see. To compare one player like Harry Kane to the top in the history, you have to wait until the end of his career but we want to enjoy every day to see him like we do normally.

“Into the pitch, out of the pitch, during the training, when he speaks to the players, when he speaks to the managers, he shows football. You can understand this in every moment. He is amazing to enjoy and to work with a player like Harry.”

Tottenham have a quiet week before their next Premier League game on Saturday against Leicester City. Off the back of what Stellini said may well have been their best performance this season, Conte phoned the team and gave them the day off on Monday before training picks up again Tuesday.

After the Leicester game things heat up again for the London club, with the Champions League round of 16 against AC Milan beginning on Tuesday, Feb. 14.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]