Sunday’s rather painful watch may have conjured up familiar themes surrounding Tottenham but it also maintained a very modern trend in the continued brilliance of Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min as a partnership.
Gareth Bale’s arrival to north London has opened up the conversation as to whether or not Spurs will have the best front three in the Premier League once the Welshman is up to speed but there is compelling evidence that they already have the best two.
Against West Ham, before it all went south, Kane set up Son in the first minute with the South Korean returning the favour seven minutes later for the pair’s fifth and seventh goals of the season, respectively.
According to the Press Association, no goalscoring partnership in Premier League history has a better goals per 90 minutes than any other pair in the division’s 28-year history.
Based on statistics that only count goals when both players are on the field at the same time, among partnerships with at least 5,000 minutes together, Kane and Son average 1.34 goals every 90 minutes.
That’s from a total of 122 goals over 8,222 minutes with Kane scoring 78 and Son 44. That puts them top of the pile ahead of Liverpool’s Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah with 1.28 and Thierry Henry and Robert Pires, during their Arsenal pomp on 1.21.
Kane and Son’s growing understanding on the field is also emphasised by the fact they have assisted 28 goals for each other, the highest number of any current Premier League players with Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero in second on 20.
You can see the all-time top five deadliest playing partnerships below …
1. Harry Kane (78) and Son-Heung Min (44) – 122 goals, 1.34 per 90 mins
2. Mohamed Salah (58) and Sadio Mane (49) – 107 goals, 1.28 per 90
3. Thierry Henry (108) and Robert Pires (54) – 162 goals, 1.21 per 90
4. Sergio Aguero (65) and Raheem Sterling (36) – 101 goals, 1.21 per 90
5. Fernando Torres (52) and Steven Gerrard (29) – 81 goals, 1.13 per 90
