Harry Kane was “going through the motions” against Arsenal, says pundit Garth Crooks, after the former Tottenham midfielder made a brutal comparison with Emile Smith Rowe.
Kane has been criticised for his display in the north London derby as his Spurs side lost 3-1 to Arsenal at the Emirates.
The Spurs captain made just five passes and had only 24 touches in the game, fewer than Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale - who had 24 and 43 respectively.
Gunners youngster Smith Rowe opened the scoring, before goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Bukayo Saka meant Arsenal went into half-time 3-0 up.
Spurs did get back into the game when Heung-min Son pulled a goal back for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side and Lucas Moura hit the crossbar in stoppage time, but the damage had already been done.
Captain Kane is yet to score for the club this season after expressing his desire to remain at Spurs, despite reported interest from Manchester City in the summer, and Crooks has laid into the player following his recent performance.
“The writing was on the wall at Emirates Stadium when I saw Ben White outjump Harry Kane for a 50/50 header in the early exchanges,” said Crooks. “Anyone can lose a header but it's Kane's body language that worried me.
“I said last week against Chelsea that he looked like he didn't fancy it, while against Arsenal he looked like he was going through the motions. I expect the captain of Tottenham Hotspur and England to be made of tougher stuff.
“Meanwhile Arsenal have a 21-year-old in Smith Rowe who was prepared to walk over broken glass to win this derby. He said in his post-match interview that it was the best day of his life. Well I hope there are better days to come for this talented youngster. Just not at Tottenham's expense."
The result means Spurs have now lost three league games in a row and have conceded three times in all of those defeats.
Will Harry Kane turn his form around? Comment below.
Spurs boss Nuno admitted his side’s performance was not good enough on the day, as his team fell below Arsenal and into the bottom half of the Premier League table.
“The performance was not good, the game plan was not good, the decisions were not good, it was not a good day for us, definitely not a good day,” he said.
Nuno also said one of the main problems was that his side were not ‘aggressive enough’ at the when competing with Mikel Arteta’s side at the Emirates.
“I’m going to be honest with you, when you have a gameplan you have to make the right decisions in terms of who you want to put up the pitch to develop the plan because the decisions were not according to the gameplan,” Nuno said.
"I’m not going to individual tell what decisions I didn’t do right but the gameplan was not according to the players on the pitch.
“We were not aggressive enough to control the dynamic of the midfield of Arsenal, they were faster, they were stronger, more aggressive, winning second balls and we suffer when we wanted to go in front we allowed Arsenal to always come to us. By seeing that, bad decisions.
“We prepared the game, we had a good meeting but then we’re not able to do it, not strong enough, I’m being honest with you, because it’s not easy to, the decisions were not according to the gameplan so if we wanted to go strong in the midfield, then they were not the right decisions I made."
Spurs will now turn their attention to the Europa Conference League clash with Slovenian side Mura on Thursday.
