Analysing Harry Kane’s return to Tottenham’s starting line-up in their demolition of Bournemouth

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After Tottenham’s rampant form of late – particularly at White Hart Lane – the last thing visiting Bournemouth would have wanted to see was Harry Kane’s name in the Spurs starting eleven.

Despite not starting for over a month since picking up his injury against Millwall, and despite only returning for a 30-minute cameo last weekend, Tottenham’s star-man was sublime on Saturday.

It was almost as if the England striker had never been out, picking up exactly left off with an inspired performance to keep his side breathing down the back of Chelsea’s neck in the title race.

Kane’s predatory instincts inside the area were as visible as ever, latching on to Dele Alli’s ball from out wide with a good first touch before shrugging off the weak challenge of Simon Francis and gathering his composure to slot a left-footed shot into the corner, past the dive of Artur Boruc.

Yet it wasn’t his ability to find the back of the net that was most impressive on Saturday, it was his link-up play and intelligent football on the edge of the area, and his excellent vision of teammates.

On more than one occasion against the Cherries he came out of his number nine position to collect the ball just outside the 18-yard box, dragging the last defender out with him, and in doing so it created space for the likes of Kyle Walker and Christian Eriksen to make runs in behind the defence.

This was a pattern for the whole afternoon that was set inside the opening fifteen minutes and Bournemouth’s centre-backs couldn’t cope with the movement that Kane facilitated in behind.

Unlike other Premier League strikers, the 23-year-old is one of the most selfless players in the final third and this was prominent from the moment he set up Heung-Min Son for Spurs’ second.

His delicate flick completely outwitted the Bournemouth defence and gave Son the freedom to bear down on goal, extending the home side’s lead and all-but securing the spoils after just half an hour.

He nearly made it a brace of assists before half-time too when his innovative and perfectly executed deft touch around the corner found the run of Eriksen only to see him thwarted by Boruc.

The stats only back up how masterful Kane was at White Hart Lane, having five shots, creating four chances and completing 94% of his passes during the course of Tottenham’s routine victory.

Add to this the fact that he completed two take ons, won 100% of his aerial duels and made two defensive blocks and it truly was an exceptional return to the starting line-up.

His effort early in the second-half ensured that he’s now reached the 20-goal milestone in three consecutive seasons, only the fourth man in Premier League history to do so; with Alan Shearer, Thierry Henry and Ruud van Nistelrooy the other three Kane finds himself in esteemed company.

Despite playing eight fewer games than Everton’s Romelu Lukaku, Kane also finds himself only four goals behind the Belgian striker in the race for this year’s Golden Boot, and after winning it last season it can be assured that the Tottenham striker won’t relinquish his accolade without a fight.

With Kane back fit and firing and Tottenham seemingly on an unstoppable run at present, Chelsea will be nervously looking back over their shoulder at a side gathering momentum at pace.

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