Just when Tottenham Hotspur looked, briefly, like they might batter away at Aston Villa for no reward they battered a little more and this most collapsible of back-markers duly fell to pieces. Some things in the Premier League can be relied upon. Villa’s ability to look like half a half-decent team semi-interested in playing football survived this routine 2-0 defeat. Beyond that, Spurs’ two most exhilarating players, Harry Kane and Dele Alli, provided further evidence of what is starting to look, towards the end of their first season together, like the start of a beautiful friendship.
To date, much of the season’s ambient hyperbole has been taken up praising the creative interaction between Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez. Watching Kane and Alli cut through the home defence here it seemed possible the title race might end up being decided by which of these attacking combinations can function best under pressure as the winter slog recedes into spring. England must be truly blessed with talent if Roy Hodgson can consider leaving either out of his starting lineup.
Kane and Alli have both been run into the ground a little in recent weeks. Here Spurs’ No10 missed plenty of chances but kept on keeping on and scored both goals either side of half-time.
For Mauricio Pochettino, the benefit of a mass rotation after the Europa League game with Borussia Dortmund was the chance to reinstate the golden midfield triangle of Eric Dier, Mousa Dembélé and Alli. So far Spurs still haven’t lost this season when all three have been on the pitch for more than 45 minutes. And here Alli, in particular, looked revitalised, storming about in his big, green boots, snapping the ball away from Villa’s midfield, always looking to thrust forward.
Before kick-off Villa Park was a rueful, sombre place, the teams applauded on to the pitch without any real expectation. Fans of bathos and managed decay will have enjoyed the sound of David Bowie’s Heroes echoing around the chilly, rattly stands. Spurs fended off a little early pressure. Dembélé twice shrugged Jordan Veretout off the ball, although as feats of strength go this is probably up there with crushing a grape, ripping a tissue, dismembering a dandelion and so on.
For a while it was a rollicking game with no real pattern or centre beyond another Alli pass, another Kane shot. For all their pressure, Spurs seemed to be treating Brad Guzan like the Death Star: searching for some hidden weak spot right down the centre of Villa’s goalkeeper, rather than trying the more traditional corners of the net.
After the break: same again. Érik Lamela played Alli in down the right flank. His low pass evaded everyone but Kane, who prodded the ball high past Guzan. At which point, with more than 40 minutes left at Villa Park, it was all over bar the increasingly concerted shouting at the absent Randy Lerner.The opening goal arose from quick thinking. Picking himself up after a foul, Alli clipped an instant free-kick into Kane’s path as he sped away from Alan Hutton. Kane took a touch and buried it.
Much has been made this season of the social mobility within the Premier League, of clubs on the rise in a year of low-pressure giants. Another dominant note has been disaffection, supporter alienation, fury at failing absent owners. Only one of these is likely to make the broadcast montages. But it is there nonetheless, a constant refrain.
For Spurs, the Kane-Alli axis now looks key to the run-in. These were the second and third scoring link-ups between the two in the last couple of games after the memorable befuddlement of Per Mertesacker at White Hart Lane. To date, six of Alli’s eight assists in the Premier League have been Kane-based scoring passes.
It is an absorbing spectacle to see two young footballers in their first season together forging such a potent partnership, to the extent that the idea Hodgson could choose not to select both in his starting XI at the Euros seems depressingly joyless. This may not be a continent-conquering partnership yet, but it’s what England have got right now, the best of what the league has produced this year, a spritz of something fine and vital, and a pair of young players who are a credit also to the tiers below.
Pochettino talked again afterwards about Spurs being ready to “dream” of winning the title. The energy and boldness of the Dele-Harry axis will be key to making that a reality.
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