Today I'm going back four years to 2018 and the North London Derby between Spurs and Arsenal played at Wembley Stadium due to ongoing construction work at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. As programmes go, you may be used to me criticising poor offerings on sale at various clubs but, in this case, I take my hat off to the Tottenham programme production team. In particular the cover is almost a work of art featuring, as it does, Harry Kane in profile and in action all at the same time. Well done indeed!
I think that Harry Kane is, quite simply, the greatest striker that I have ever seen in a Spurs or England shirt and, if he continues in his rich vein of scoring form for a few more seasons, will surely be regarded as one of the all-time English goal scoring greats. Kane, who is currently 28, hopefully has another five or six seasons left in him at least and, provided that he avoids serious injury, is on course to become England's all-time top scorer. At the time of writing Kane has already scored 48 times for England and in November 2018 it was Kane who presented Wayne Rooney with a Golden Boot in recognition of his record breaking 53 goals for England. Apparently Rooney asked that Kane make the presentation as he believed that Kane would one day take the record himself. With just six goals now required it's possible that Kane will secure the record later this year at the Qatar World Cup. Fingers crossed eh?
At club level, Harry Kane is now the second highest goal scorer of all-time for Spurs with 232 goals in all competitions in 362 matches. Kane is second only to legendary striker Jimmy Greaves who scored 268 goals in 381 Spurs matches and may well be leaving the club at the end of the season in a quest for trophies. It would be such a shame if he fails to break the Spurs record and maybe the presence of Antonio Conte in the Tottenham management hot seat will persuade Kane that his future lies at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Fingers crossed eh?
The featured game was the 182nd meeting of the two sides and was played before a full house numbering 83,222, a Premier League record crowd. Goalless at halftime, the match caught fire early in the second half. Given the programme cover tribute, there was only one man who could break the deadlock wasn't there? The ball came down Tottenham's left flank and Ben Davies fired in a cross which Harry Kane leapt to head home despite the presence of not one but two Arsenal defenders. It was a super finish and was Kane's seventh in all in games against Arsenal. In truth, he could have had a hattrick that day but spurned other opportunities to score. No matter. One goal prove to be enough, the North London bragging rights belonged to Tottenham and all was right with the world!
Season 2017/18 was a good one for Mauricio Pochettino's Tottenham who finished third in the Premier League behind the two Manchester clubs (City were Champions that year) and thereby qualified for the following season's Champions League where they would go on to reach the Final. Arsenal, still managed by Arsene Wenger, again failed to qualify for the Champions League and had to content themselves with a place in the following season's Europa League instead. After 22 years in charge of Arsenal, Wenger announced that he would be leaving the club at the end of the season.
CRB Match No. 2205
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