Tottenham 4-0 West BromHome Team ScorersHarry Kane 12
Gareth McAuley 26 o.g.
Harry Kane 77
Harry Kane 82
When Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur play as they did here, particularly in the first half, the tentative talk of this being the year when the title finally comes to White Hart Lane does not sound too fanciful.
West Bromwich Albion have come to be bogey opponents and their reputation for being a tough nut to crack under Tony Pulis is long established. Spurs simply blew them away during the opening 45 minutes, which was as one-sided a half of football as has been seen for some time, before they finished the job in the second period.
Harry Kane helped himself to a hat-trick, which was a lovely way to celebrate the birth of his first child, Ivy, but he could have had many more and once again Christian Eriksen excelled and Dele Alli was not too far behind in the ratings.
Tottenham are up into second – on the back of six straight league wins – and they have hit top form at the same time as they did last season, when they challenged seriously for the title. Pochettino’s three-at-the-back system looked perfectly calibrated and the only disappointment was a serious-looking ankle injury for Jan Vertonghen. The centre-half was forced off in obvious distress. The message from the home crowd rang out clearly. They are coming for the leaders, Chelsea.
West Brom had come to be compact, with a tight midfield trio plus wide midfielders who were so deep at the outset that the formation looked more like a 6-3-1. Tottenham laid waste the plan and Kane might have had a hat-trick inside the opening 25 minutes. In the first-half alone, he had five clear sightings of goal and the visitors could be thankful that Ben Foster’s reflexes were on point.
The one that Kane did score before the break was a precision finish but it was underpinned by shoddy West Brom defending that felt so uncharacteristic for a Pulis team. Eriksen collected the ball from Victor Wanyama and he clipped a simple pass through for Kane, who was played onside by the dawdling Craig Dawson. Kane took one touch before lifting over Foster into the near top corner.
As is so often the case with early kick-offs, the atmosphere was subdued for long periods. The home crowd simply settled back to be entertained. They were. Alli pushed up alongside Kane while Eriksen floated between making a third man in central midfield and getting forward. Once again, he pulled the strings.
Three of Kane’s first-half chances were from close range but he guided the first from Danny Rose’s cross past the far post while Foster saved the other two – one a diving header from Kane that followed Wanyama’s cross; the other a first-time shot from Kyle Walker’s centre. Kane also saw Foster tip his low shot from outside the penalty area on to a post and away in the 35th minute.
Tottenham’s second goal was marked by good fortune but nobody could say that Eriksen had not earned it. He took on the shot from the edge of the area and it deflected first off Jonas Olsson and then Gareth McAuley to wrong-foot Foster. Pochettino punched the air. The stadium announcer called it as a McAuley own goal. Alli had the ball in the net again moments later, from Eriksen’s lovely return ball only to be flagged narrowly for offside.
The travelling Albion fans were treated to a half-chance shortly after half-time, when Salomón Rondón ran through and dragged wide of the far post while Pulis made a tactical switch on 54 minutes when he sent on James McClean and went to a 3-5-2 system. Matt Phillips and McClean were the wing-backs. It was Pulis’s way of trying to combat Tottenham’s Walker and Rose – which is a preoccupation for every opposing manager these days.
Albion were better in the second half but Spurs still carved out chances and Foster further enhanced his status as the only visiting player to emerge with any credit. He made a double save from Toby Alderweireld and Vertonghen following a corner while, after Alli had nutmegged Darren Fletcher and fed Kane, Foster beat out the striker’s shot. He also denied Wanyama after more prompting from Eriksen.
Tottenham shrugged off the loss of Vertonghen to turn the screw towards the end. Walker robbed McAuley to cross for Kane to finish with a side-on volley while Kane completed the hat-trick with a volleyed finished after Alli’s scooped pass over the top.
Guardian