'Clever' Kane inflicts City loss to revive title race

MANCHESTER • Pep Guardiola once labelled Tottenham Hotspur "the Harry Kane side" and the Spaniard was left marvelling at the striker who slipped out of his grasp in the transfer market as his two goals loosened Manchester City's grip on the Premier League title race on Saturday.

England skipper Kane, whose desired move to City last summer fell through, gave Spurs a 59th-minute lead and then struck deep into stoppage time to earn his side a 3-2 win.

Said Guardiola: "Tottenham have a lot of quality, they give the ball to Harry Kane. They are really good up front. In the first half, they have the goal and no more.

"In the second half, they have one attack and they score. They are clinical. They have Kane, Son (Heung-min) and (Dejan) Kulusevski. Their crosses we could not defend."

New boy Kulusevski gave the away side a shock lead at the Etihad after just four minutes and set up Kane's late winner. In between, City twice equalised through Ilkay Gundogan in the 33rd minute and Riyad Mahrez in the second minute of added time, but Kane got the winner three minutes later.

Gundogan told Sky Sports: "I remember us before the match saying we need to be careful when we lose the ball in transitions... in all three goals, we invited them to score. We gave the ball away too easily."

It was only City's third league defeat of the season but their second by Tottenham, who won the reverse fixture on the opening day of the campaign when a wantaway Kane played no part.

The champions' lead at the top has been cut to six points over Liverpool, who have a game in hand. Jurgen Klopp's men visit the Etihad in April.

City had 72 per cent possession against Tottenham and Guardiola praised his side's display, but they could not contain Kane and Son, who combined superbly throughout the contest.

But Kane, whose side had lost their last three league matches before upsetting City, cautioned: "It'll definitely give us a lift... We can't just put in one-off performances like this, it needs to be consistently game after game."

Like Guardiola, Spurs boss Antonio Conte feted the 28-year-old forward, calling him an "important player" who "was very good at keeping the ball".

But the most gushing praise came via the pundits.

All-time Premier League top scorer Alan Shearer told the BBC: "That's one of the best all-round centre-forward performances I've seen all season, anywhere...

"Intelligence, aggression, goals, assists, he was just far, far too good for City's centre-halves Aymeric Laporte and Ruben Dias - and it is not very often we say that. He was just too clever for them."

His former England teammate Jamie Carragher agreed, saying on Sky Sports: "That was one of the best performances I've seen this season... everything he did was pure class. Kane is one of the best passers in the Premier League, he's not far behind (Kevin) de Bruyne."

Meanwhile, City said they were "shocked and appalled" by an attack on Phil Foden and his family after a video appeared to show them involved in a scuffle at Saturday's boxing match between Amir Khan and Kell Brook at the Manchester Arena after the game.

REUTERS