There is a sublime confidence about Spurs sometimes, when they win the ball in their own half and head forward in numbers and at pace, crowd roaring in seeming certainty that a chance will result. Alli and Son were excellent today, and Kane was always on hand to deliver the killer blow. Southampton were spectacularly ill-equipped to deal with them. Still, they worked hard throughout and even scored a couple of Lloris-assisted goals, so it wasn’t all bad. Mostly bad, sure, but not all bad. Anyway, that’s all from me. It’s been awesome. Bye!
Updated
Harry Kane has a chuffed chat:
It was hard not to think about the record, going into the game being level. As always I wanted to win the game first and foremost, but I also wanted a goal. To get that goal early on was a great feeling, and I could enjoy the rest of the game.
How, he’s asked, has he improved over the last year?
This year I’d say physically, recovery from games. Making sure I’m ready for each game. Eating right, recovering right, ice baths. It’s a busy period and I feel sharp, I feel at my best. And just getting more experience should make me a better player anyway.
The action is not over: Michael Butler is on top of the 3pm kick-offs:
Final score: Tottenham 5-2 Southampton
90+4 mins: Tottenham have roared to a carefree victory, and Harry Kane to a hat-trick and into history.
Updated
90+3 mins: Surely the last notable action of the game sees Gabbiadini lash a ferocious shot wide from 25 yards.
90+2 mins: Tottenham nearly create a chance, but Eriksen prefers a lovely flick to a shot, and then Lamela runs into a defender.
90+1 mins: Hojbjerg runs into a Spurs player from behind – precisely the offence for which this referee did not give a penalty in the first half – and the referee gives a free kick.
90+1 mins: Into stoppage time, of which there will be something like three minutes.
89 mins: Tadic goes down over Sanchez’s stretching leg, and the referee gives a free kick, eventually, after a lengthy thinking break. From it, they win a corner.
86 mins: Southampton win another corner. As with their last, Lloris screams “keeper!” as it comes in. Unlike the last, he catches it. Wembley cheers loudly.
84 mins: Substitutions: For Southampton McQueen comes on for Targett, and for Tottenham Winks replaces Alli.
83 mins: Great chance for Spurs! Alli reaches the byline on the left, stops, turns back and passes into the path of Lamela, who shoots high from 12 yards with Kane getting in his way a bit.
GOAL! Tottenham 5-2 Southampton (Tadic, 82 mins)
Hojbjerg’s lovely-looking-in-slow-motion shot from 20 yards it tipped round the post by Lloris, who then comes out to weakly punch the ball to the edge of his area, from where Tadic lifts it back over his head and into the net!
Updated
81 mins: Certainly the referee’s ankle seems to have deliberately attempted to deceive the referee by feigning injury. The rest of the referee should be free to officiate on a few days’ time, but the ankle’s looking at a few games on the sidelines.
Is the referee looking at a retrospective three match ban for simulation @Simon_Burnton?
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) December 26, 2017
79 mins: Spurs break in numbers and at speed, and Alli ignored a simply and probably goal-creating pass to Lamela in favour of cutting in from the left and running into a defender.
Updated
78 mins: This fine statistic illustrates precisely what kind of mess Kane is making of Premier League defences:
.@premierleague hat-tricks in 2017:
— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) December 26, 2017
6 - @HKane
1 - @aguerosergiokun
1 - Josh King
1 - @RomeluLukaku9
1 - @AlvaroMorata
1 - @WayneRooney
1 - @CallumWilson pic.twitter.com/PRktjFO8Dx
76 mins: Lamela comes on for the again excellent Son. The referee is playing on.
76 mins: The referee is hurt! He’s developed a slight limp and seems to be feeling an ankle.
73 mins: Gabbiadini should have had a chance himself but he took a terrible touch that carried the ball to the byline, so instead he squared it across goal where Long seemed all set to tap in, until Vertonghen arrived at the last to divert the ball over the bar!
Updated
73 mins: Incredible clearance by Vertonghen! How did Long not score there?
70 mins: Stephens gets the ball, just on the right-hand corner of the area. I think he meant his low ball into the area to curl away from the goalkeeper and set up a team-mate, but instead it carried on dead straight and Lloris tips it round the post.
GOAL! Tottenham 5-1 Southampton (Kane, 67 mins)
It’s a hat-trick! Spurs win the ball on the right, and a pass to Alli and a lovely forward pass beyond Yoshida later Kane runs into the area, sees Forster haring towards him and lifts the ball over the goalkeeper and in with his left foot!
Updated
GOAL! Tottenham 4-1 Southampton (Boufal, 64 mins)
Boufal drives low and hard at the near post from just inside the area, and Lloris can’t get down quickly enough to stop it! Not an outright clanger, but nor was that the keeper’s finest hour.
Updated
63 mins: Another disappointing afternoon for Redmond ends with Tadic replacing him, and Gabbiadini has also come on, replacing Lemina.
8 - Son Heung-Min has been involved in eight goals in his last six Premier League starts at Wembley (five goals, three assists). Handful. pic.twitter.com/gSutvlUASA
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 26, 2017
60 mins: Some lovely build-up play on the right from Spurs, but Aurier’s cross is rubbish. Goal kick.
58 mins: Long gets booked for not really doing very much to Sanchez. “The analysis of Harry Kane’s goals for not only the 2017 calender year but also the previous calender years of 2016 and 2015 (since Tottenham stopped loaning him out to other teams) show a majority of his yearly goal tallies are recorded in the winter months of November to March when the EPL uses the predominately yellow/orange winter ball and his goal contributions from April to October are lower when using the predominately white summer ball,” notes Raymond Reardon. Yes, that’ll be it. He doesn’t like white, except on shirts.
57 mins: And nearly a hat-trick for Kane! Rose pings a long ball from deep on the left into the area, and Kane runs onto it and volleys back across goal and maybe a foot wide of the far post.
Updated
55 mins: Southampton’s best move of the game ends with Romeu taking a shot from the edge of the area, which Lloris saves. It would have been an even better move if he had instead played in the team-mate with half a penalty area of space to revel in, just to his left.
54 mins: He doesn’t look in terrible pain, but there’s clearly an issue: Sissoko is already ready to replace him.
53 mins: Dembele goes down in the centre circle, with nobody near him.
GOAL! Tottenham 4-0 Southampton (Son, 51 mins)
Southampton attack, and find Redmond just inside the penalty area. He taps the ball back to an imaginary team-mate, and when he can’t control it Alli picks it up, runs into Southampton’s half, waits for Son to make a run to his left, finds him with a perfect if simple pass, and the finish is emphatic!
Updated
GOAL! Tottenham 3-0 Southampton (Alli, 49 mins)
Southampton’s excellent start to the half ends with a Tottenham goal. Alli and Son exchange passes 25 yards out, and Alli cuts inside Romeu’s weak challenge and shoots low, not very powerfully but with absolute precision across goal and in at the far post!
Updated
48 mins: Southampton hit the bar! Lemina shimmies across the edge of the area before thumping a left-foot shot that is rising all the way and gives the bar a fair thwump on its way over.
46 mins: Chance for Southampton! Dier’s pass comes off the wrong part of his foot, loops into the air and over Sanchez, and suddenly Long is running clear on goal! Sanchez, though, is rapid, and is back to harass the striker, who then slips when shooting, and the shot goes straight to Lloris.
46 mins: Peeeep! They’re off! Again!
The players are back out. More fun/punishment imminent.
Is any young forward (say Dominic Calvert-Lewin) analysing what makes Harry Kane do prolific @Simon_Burnton? Messi and Ronaldo are freaks of nature, but Kane just looks like he does everything that bit better than his peers. So how exactly, is my question and can D C-L do it too?
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) December 26, 2017
It does indeed seem that Kane is just fractionally better at stuff, and I expect that many young strikers are looking at him and trying to work out how. But I suspect that Kane is in fact also a freak of nature, only wearing particularly good disguise.
“It hardly seems fair that Southampton were not contacted in advance of this game and told about Harry Kane,” writes JR. “If they were warned about him I’d imagine they’d have implemented some plan to mark him on those goals.”
Jamie Redknapp says Eriksen’s beautiful set-piece delivery for Tottenham’s first goal was “almost spiteful”.
Kane has ended seven years of Menaldo/Ronassi domination of the global-top-scorer chart:
After 7 years of Messi & Ronaldo:
— Kristof Terreur 📰 (@HLNinEngeland) December 26, 2017
✔️2009 D. Villa 🇪🇸43
✔️2010 L. Messi 🇦🇷60
✔️2011 C. Ronaldo 🇵🇹60
✔️2012 L. Messi 🇦🇷91
✔️2013 C. Ronaldo 🇵🇹 69
✔️2014 C. Ronaldo 🇵🇹 61
✔️2015 C. Ronaldo 🇵🇹 57
✔️2016 L. Messi 🇦🇷 59
✅ 2017 H. Kane 🏴 55 pic.twitter.com/Q8Lm6KYT3p
Yeah, but he’s still rubbish in August.
Harry Kane's Premier League goals in 2017:
— Goal (@goal) December 26, 2017
May ⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽
December ⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽
September ⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽
January ⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽
February ⚽⚽⚽⚽
March ⚽⚽
April ⚽⚽
October ⚽⚽
November ⚽⚽
Half time: Tottenham 2-0 Southampton
45+2 mins: And with that the first half is over. Southampton are way short of the required level to actually worry good teams.
45+1 mins: Kane tries to end the half on a high, playing a one-two with Eriksen and then floating the ball over Forster and towards the far post, but also over the bar.
⚽️💥 Les meilleurs buteurs en 2017 🔥🔥
— RMC Sport (@RMCsport) December 26, 2017
1️⃣ Harry Kane 🏴 : 55 buts
2️⃣ Lionel Messi 🇦🇷 : 54 buts
3️⃣ Robert Lewandowski 🇵🇱 : 53 buts
3️⃣ Cristiano Ronaldo 🇵🇹 : 53 buts
3️⃣ Edinson Cavani 🇺🇾 : 53 buts#TOTSOU #BoxingDay #RMClive pic.twitter.com/OQoIBHxf1f
45+1 mins: Into stoppage time, of which there will be a minute or so.
42 mins: Kane’s glorious low crossfield pass sends Son running into the area, where he shields the ball and waits for a defender to barge him in the back. Stephens duly obliges, and Son tumbles. The referee waves play on, but we’ve all seen ‘em given.
41 mins: Aurier takes the ball from Redmond, who finds the Spurs man’s ankle where he thought the ball would be and treads on it. It looks painful, but is accidental and unpunished.
GOAL! Tottenham 2-0 Southampton (Kane, 39 mins)
And another! This is a good move that slices and dices the visiting defence. Eriksen finds Alli, whose ball to Son found the Korean rushing into the left of the penalty area and arrived perfectly for him to hit a first-time low cross that again took out Forster and left Kane with a tap-in.
Updated
37 mins: Boufal concedes a free kick, about 40 yards from Southampton’s goal, and Kane tries a quick shot, before the defence is at all ready. And, it turns out, before he was at all ready, as the ball flies so far over the bar that it isn’t visible on television. Goal kick.
35 mins: … but he smacks it into the face of the nearest Southampton player.
34 mins: Romeu brings down Dembele on the left-hand corner of the penalty area, and Spurs have another dangerous free kick. Kane seems to be taking this one.
31 mins: Eriksen, meanwhile, gets a little space inside the penalty area but drags his shot across goal and wide.
30 mins: Redmond gets down the right, but crosses straight and low to Lloris. Southampton are threatening down the flanks, if not actually in the penalty area.
26 mins: Southampton win a corner, which bounces right through the area and out the other side. Meanwhile, Shearer probably wrote this tweet in August, or in 2015, but has been waiting for the right moment to press send. That time has come:
You’ve had a magnificent 2017 @HKane. You deserve to hold the record of most @premierleague goals in a calendar year. Well done and keep up the good work. 👏🏻🙋🏼♂️
— Alan Shearer (@alanshearer) December 26, 2017
Updated
24 mins: So nearly a comedy equaliser! Lloris pushes out Boufal’s shot and Rose heads the ball back to him, but it’s a bit high, the keeper fingertips it into the air, it comes down and bounces against the post, and stalls on the line before Lloris rushes back to claim it!
22 mins: That was beautiful delivery from Eriksen, with his right foot from out on the left. It would probably have curled just inside the far post had Kane not headed it in from a yard, Forster having been taken out by the dip and curl on the ball, and the striker’s marker Romeu trailing a yard or so behind.
Updated
GOAL! Tottenham 1-0 Southampton (Kane, 22 mins)
History is made!
RECORD BREAKER!!! #OneOfOurOwn pic.twitter.com/n0EGPRbMbJ
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) December 26, 2017
21 mins: Rose runs down the left, with Hojbjerg trying a variety of ways of fouling him as he does so, ranging from tugging at his arm to basically hitching a ride on his back, before finally sticking out a leg and tripping him a foot from the penalty area. Free kick, and a yellow card.
17 mins: Dele Alli gets his obligatory could-have-been-red-carded moment in early, smacking Targett in the chops with a wavy elbow. Targett didn’t fling himself to the ground and roll about clutching his jaw, as many would have done, and it lacked obvious premeditation and violent intent, so the referee just waves play on.
14 mins: Dele Alli tries to volley the ball from out on the left over Forster and in at the far post. He misses by a considerable distance, but in some kind of alternate reality Spurs fans are currently celebrating an absolute beauty.
11 mins: A slightly calmer few minutes, but Mauricio Pellegrino’s demand that his side “manage the ball” has not been heeded. “Way back before the dawn of time, i.e. boxing day 1980, when you could buy a ticket at the gate. Spurs played Southampton at white hart lane,” recalls John Tumbridge. “Someone appeared fashionably 15 minutes late and reasonably enough asked what the score was. ‘0-0,’ was the reply, ‘and looking likely to stay that way.’ Final result: 4-4.”
8 mins: Now Spurs have the ball in the net, but Eriksen was offside. The home side are massively dominant at the moment.
6 mins: And another! Southampton give the ball away in midfield and Alli runs forward, passes to Eriksen to his right, and the low cross is prodded wide by Kane at the near post.
5 mins: And a chance! Son’s low cross from the left is pushed out by Forster and rolls to Aurier, who rushes a left-foot shot when he had time to control and use his right, or pass to a better-placed team-mate.
4 mins: The first shot of the day comes from Eriksen, just outside the penalty area, and is deflected wide for a corner.
3 mins: Which hits the wall, loops into the air and is punched clear by Lloris.
1 min: Southampton set the harrying dial up to 11 as the game starts, and Long and Hojbjerg combing to push Vertonghen into an error, and conceding a free kick.
1 min: Peeeeep! The visitors get the game started!
The players are out of the tunnel!
The players are in the tunnel!
Mauricio Pellegrino talks, first about why he selected Long over Gabbiadini:
Because obviously both can play, two players that are really important for us, but Shane maybe is a little bit quicker and maybe we have more space than normal.
I need fresh legs, fresh people. Also we play again in four days. I need to rotate them. My squad is equalised, really tight, all of them can play, and when there is competition in the squad I think it is good for them.
[On Van Dijk’s absence] With Virgil there is a lot of speculation. We have to wait until January and after we will talk about it.
[And how to stop Harry Kane] I think the main thing is try to keep the ball, to manager the ball. Because if they manage the ball they are really dangerous. For me the key is to manage the ball as much as possible.
Mauricio Pochettino talks about Harry Kane’s bid for history. In short, stop asking me about Harry Kane’s bid for history:
I know very well, and the team as well, he can make history scoring goals today, and it would be fantastic for him. But I think he’s thinking not only of that, but trying to help the team to achieve three points. To give momentum and win the game would be fantastic for us. I think the collective is more important than his individual achievement.
Of course it is an extra motivation for him, but he’s always so motivated to score. His mentality is fantastic. I hope he helps the team achieve the three points and after that achieve the record, because it would be fantastic for the team and for him of course.
So Rose and Dembele return for Tottenham, for whom Sissoko and Davies drop to the bench. Southampton make four changes, bringing in Long, Romeu, Boufal and Hojbjerg, with Davis, Tadic and Ward-Prowse on the bench and Austin suspended.
Further statistical encouragement for Spurs:
11 - Spurs are unbeaten in their last 11 Premier League games played on Boxing Day (W8 D3), since a 0-2 loss at Portsmouth in 2003. Festive.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 26, 2017
The teams!
So here are today’s teams:
Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris, Aurier, Sanchez, Vertonghen, Rose, Dier, Dembele, Eriksen, Alli, Son, Kane. Subs: Trippier, Lamela, Vorm, Sissoko, Llorente, Winks, Davies.
Southampton: Forster, Stephens, Yoshida, Hoedt, Targett, Romeu, Lemina, Boufal, Hojbjerg, Redmond, Long. Subs: Davis, Tadic, McCarthy, Ward-Prowse, Gabbiadini, Pied, McQueen.
Referee: Graham Scott.
#THFC: Lloris (C), Aurier, Sanchez, Vertonghen, Rose, Dier, Dembele, Eriksen, Dele, Son, Kane. #COYS pic.twitter.com/jTtBp8Hbk2
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) December 26, 2017
The teams are in!
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) December 26, 2017
Here's the #SaintsFC side for this afternoon's meeting with #THFC: pic.twitter.com/hVPbQ3jLxz
Talking of team news, here’s one name you won’t see on the team sheets when they’re handed in:
Virgil van Dijk hasn't travelled with the #SaintsFC squad today. Do the maths!
— Adam Leitch (@adamleitchsport) December 26, 2017
Hello world!
Most teams have two games still to play in 2017 but for Tottenham there is only today, so if Harry Kane is to better Alan Shearer’s 22-year-old record of 36 Premier League goals in a single calendar year he has only one chance: he must score today. One will do. And he has reason to be confident: 1) He is Harry Kane; 2) Southampton have not kept a clean sheet in their last 10 matches, and only Crystal Palace (3), Newcastle (3) and Stoke (2) have kept fewer clean sheets this season than the Saints’ four; 3) Tottenham have scored at least once in all 10 matches against Southampton in the last decade. Having said that, Kane’s record against these opponents is a fairly pedestrian two goals in nine matches.
Mauricio Pellegrino’s side end the calendar year in style, with back-to-back trips to Wembley and Old Trafford, as they start a run of four away games in five fixtures, including the FA Cup tie at Fulham. Spurs meanwhile are at home in four of their next five matches, including their FA Cup tie against AFC Wimbledon.
Anyway, hello! Merry post-Christmas! And welcome! Team news should roll in in a few moments, so stand by…
Updated
