By the time Tottenham Hotspur had completed their night’s work, featuring another exceptional demonstration of the damage that can be inflicted on opponents by Harry Kane and Dele Alli, nobody could be in any doubt about the durability of this team and the collective belief among Mauricio Pochettino’s players that there is still time to catch and overhaul the only side above them in the Premier League.
The odds are stacked against them, with five points to make up over four games, but if Spurs wanted to give Leicester City a poke-in-the-ribs reminder about their presence in second position, they did so with the expertise of a team playing like would-be champions.
A trip to Stoke was supposedly going to be one of the more challenging assignments of Spurs’ run-in but this was a rout that could easily have finished with an even more emphatic scoreline given that, among their many scoring chances, Christian Eriksen thudded one shot against the crossbar and Alli struck the post with a miss that was completely out of keeping with the rest of his performance.
Alli had just gone around Shay Given, Stoke City’s ageing and badly exposed goalkeeper, and his failure to apply the right finish left Pochettino on his knees in disbelief. Yet it was only a passing irritation and Alli can be forgiven when he plays this stylishly, with so much energy and panache.
Spurs played some beautifully constructed football, passing the ball with speed, movement and penetration. Alli, Mousa Dembélé and Érik Lamela were all prominently involved while Kane has re-established himself as the top division’s leading scorer, two ahead of Jamie Vardy with 24 goals. On this evidence there is not an obvious weakness in the team.
More than anything, they left the impression they are relishing the chase. A lesser team might have been slightly apprehensive at the start or in that long period after Kane’s opener, scored in the ninth minute, when they could not add the second goal that would to all intents have ended any realistic hopes of a Stoke comeback. Not Spurs, though. Their superiority was unbroken apart from a five‑minute spell in the first half and even then there was no grave danger for a team that has conceded fewer away goals, 13, than any other side.
Their second goal finally arrived, overdue, in the 70th minute when Eriksen’s expertly weighted through-ball left Alli running clear and the 20-year-old dinked a clever shot past Given and, after that, Stoke collapsed in a way that was uncommon to witness, especially on their own ground.
Kane rolled in the third goal after Lamela had sprung the offside trap from Alli’s pass. Alli then slashed a volley past Given to make it 4-0 and further enhance his team’s goal difference, now 13 superior to Leicester’s. Three goals had arrived in a glorious 15-minute spell but it would be a mistake to think they did all their damage in that period. The truth is they were too good for Stoke from the start. Kane’s performance was another reminder of his credentials to win the industry’s player-of-the-year awards and it was rare to see Ryan Shawcross coming off such a poor second best against a direct opponent.
Kane must be regarded on this form as the most complete all-round striker in the league and his early strike was another outstanding goal to add to his collection, cutting inside from the left and eluding Philipp Wollscheid before adjusting his body shape and curling a diagonal shot, left to right, into the far corner.
The England striker had been let down by a poor first touch a few minutes earlier when Lamela’s pass gave him his first chance of the night and, by half-time, Stoke were fortunate to be only one behind. One move, in particular, highlighted the away team’s superiority, culminating in an exquisite flick from Alli to send Eriksen through the middle. The Dane had a clear run at goal but the finish was slightly wild over Given and struck the crossbar.
Stoke’s most encouraging moment in that period came via Marko Arnautovic with a 25-yard shot but Mark Hughes’s team were strangely subdued all night and, in keeping with what often happens here, he and the club’s supporters reverted to concocting a series of exaggerated grievances about the officiating.
It was a cop-out and, if anything, Stoke were fortunate during the second-half blitz that Shawcross got away with wrestling Toby Alderweireld to the ground inside the penalty area. One of Danny Rose’s surges forward from left-back ended with him slipping over after Kane had sent him running clear and there were other chances for Alli, Lamela and Kane to add further goals.
Pochettino had been agitated at 1-0 but Stoke looked so ordinary there were only fleeting moments when Hugo Lloris’s goal was under genuine threat. Spurs had outclassed them. They might not win the league but they are playing the most cohesive, joined-up football of any team and Leicester could be forgiven for looking over their shoulders.
