The Harry Kane Team, Pep Guardiola calls them. The Spurs centre forward gets a lot of the love at Tottenham. He should have had a hat-trick here.
Dele Alli is always in the news, too. Wanted by Barcelona. Got a new public relations company to smooth his move away, they say. Nor is Christian Eriksen short of praise. The Dane gets the plaudits that his rich talent deserves.
Tucked away among the Tottenham supporting cast is Son Heung-Min Son. Often, it seems, he does not quite get the praise his contributions deserve. ‘He gets the praise he deserves from us,’ Mauricio Pochettino said after this 5-1 rout of Stoke City. The way he played at Wembley, it was simply impossible to ignore the impact he made.
Stoke City centre back Ryan Shawcross deflected a low cross into his own net to give Tottenham Hotspur the lead
Son Heung-Min got himself on the score sheet seven minutes after half time for a goal he deserved with his performance
Harry Kane then finally got his goal with a close range header that bounced through Jack Butland’s legs from a cross
Kane got his second goal and Spurs’ fourth after being left unmarked on the edge of the area to slot home
Christian Eriksen finished off a five-on-three counter attack for 5-0 after being set up by the irrepressible and impressive Son
Shawcross completed the unusual feat of scoring at both ends as he headed in a late consolation past Hugo Lloris
LINE UPS, PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE AND MATCH ZONE
Ratings by Sami Mokbel
Spurs (4-2-3-1): Lloris 6; Trippier 7, Dier 7, Vertonghen 7, Davies 7.5; Dembele 7, Winks 7.5 (Sissoko 78); Eriksen 7.5, Alli 7.5 (Lamela 67, 6.5), Son 8.5 (Llorente 86); Kane 8
Unused subs: Vorm, Rose, Foyth, Aurier
Goals: Shawcross og 21, Son 52, Kane 54, 65, Eriksen 74
Booking: Dembele 66
Manager: Mauricio Pochettino 7
Stoke (3-4-3): Butland 4; Zouma 5.5, Shawcross 6, Wimmer 5; Edwards 5 (Crouch 70, 5), Allen 5.5 (Afellay 80), Fletcher 5, Pieters 5; Shaqiri 5 (Cameron 75), Diouf 4, Chupo-Moting 4
Unused subs: Grant, Adam, Ramadan, Berahino
Goal: Shawcross 80
Manager: Mark Hughes 5.5
Referee: Roger East 6.5
MOM: Son
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After an even opening 20 minutes, Spurs took the lead at Wembley after a Son-Heung Min cross was put into his own net by Ryan Shawcross. For more stats and facts, check out our exclusive MATCH ZONE service by clicking here.
Son was brilliant against Mark Hughes’ team, which could not handle his pace, his movement or his invention. He scored one goal and made two as Spurs ran riot in the second half against a side that is stuck somewhere between the doldrums and the danger zone. On the anniversary of the death of Danny Blanchflower, Son epitomised the glory game Blanchflower once knew.
Spurs may still be a country mile behind runaway leaders Manchester City but after a run of four league games without a win, this result did at least get their domestic campaign back on track and pushed them back to within touching distance of the top four.
It moved them above Arsenal, until Sunday afternoon at least. Chelsea’s setback at West Ham suggested not only that other London teams are struggling to match last season’s efforts but also that all but Guardiola’s side are still within Spurs’ reach.
Stoke, by contrast, are now only three points clear of the drop zone. ‘I didn’t see that second half performance coming,’ Hughes said. ‘It wasn’t acceptable. We conceded two very poor goals. At 3-0 down, we needed to take our medicine and limit the damage but we couldn’t do that. Good teams like Spurs pick you off.’
The atmosphere at Wembley had been flat and perhaps a little apprehensive at the start and the stadium seemed cavernous and pockmarked with empty seats but the game finally burst into life midway through the first half. Son was the catalyst. He started in the manner in which he played all afternoon.
Son Heung-Min’s cross from the left came off Kurt Zouma then Shawcross before going past Jack Butland at Wembley
After an even opening 20 minutes, Spurs took the lead and went on to completely dominate the afternoon at Wembley
It was Stoke captain Shawcross’ sixth own goal in the Premier League – only three players have more in the league’s history
Son took on young Stoke full-back Thomas Edwards down the Spurs left. Edwards’ other start this season came at the Etihad. Hughes managed a wry smile afterwards and said Edwards might have had a gentler introduction to the Premier League.
It was his misfortune to come up against Son in an unplayable mood. Son tricked him with a step-over to get to the byline and then drilled in a fierce low cross. The ball took one deflection off Kurt Zouma and then cannoned off the head of Ryan Shawcross past Jack Butland and into the Stoke net.
Two minutes later, Stoke were way too predictable when they tried to drill a corner to the edge of the Spurs box. Son read it beautifully, intercepted it and then set off for goal with Eriksen racing clear on his left. Son ignored him and went for goal himself but Butland comfortably cleared his shot with his feet.
It was all Spurs now. Butland dived full length to his right to push away a curling Eriksen free kick and then got in the way of an awkward bouncing drive from Mousa Dembele that kicked up in front of him and hit him on the chest before it was scrambled clear.
Spurs should have gone further ahead ten minutes before half time when Son threaded a fine pass through to Kane, who turned well and advanced unmolested on Butland. Butland came out to meet him and even though Kane clipped his shot past him, it whistled past Stoke’s right hand post. Kane looked as if he could not believe it.
Kane had half a chance to make amends just before the interval when he tried to turn a Kieran Trippier cross past Butland at the near post. He failed to make a clean connection, though, and the ball bounced up and hit Shawcross. Spurs appealed for handball but their entreaties were waved away.
South Korean international Son slotted past Butland after being well set up by Dele Alli on the edge of the Stoke area
Son was the best player on the pitch and a constant threat to Stoke, with his goal finally giving Spurs some breathing space
Kane had missed a number of very presentable chances for Spurs, but did not lose hope and made it 3-0 on 54 minutes
A perfect curling cross was met by the England international six yards out, and directed through the legs of Butland
Spurs put the match beyond Stoke’s reach within the space of two minutes early in the second half. They won the ball deep in their own half and Harry Winks hooked a clever ball on to Alli. Alli ran at the Stoke defence and played a neat pass behind Zouma into the path of Son.
Son, who had ghosted his way into the perfect position on Zouma’s blind side, ran on to the pass, took one touch and then fired a low shot past Butland and into the bottom right hand corner. The goal was the very least his performance deserved.
A mistake by Butland a few seconds later nearly let Kane in but a minute after that, Davies played a one-two with Eriksen and swung a deep cross to the back post where Kane rose highest to head it home.
Kane showed his immense goal scoring talent with an instinctive finish from his supposedly weaker left foot
The Stoke defence looks dejected after going down to another heavy defeat against Spurs, to go with three recent 4-0 losses
Stoke went one worse than conceding their usual four against Spurs by letting in five as Eriksen finished past Butland
Eriksen coolly lofted the ball into the net to round off a truly five-star display for Spurs against the abysmal Potters
Stoke did manage a rare attack on the hour but Xherdan Shaqiri shot tamely and too close to Hugo Lloris with his weaker right foot and Spurs turned the game into a rout a few minutes later.
Their fourth goal was made by a piece of brilliance from Eriksen on the right. There was no danger when he received the ball with his back to goal near the half way line but he tricked his marker by letting the ball run and drifted past him. Then he curled a cross behind the Stoke defence that they could not clear and Kane ran on to the loose ball to sidefoot his shot past Butland from 12 yards.
Son continued his bravura performance with an audacious cross 20 minutes from time that he curled into the path of substitute Erik Lamela with a swish of the outside of his right boot. Lamela got a touch to it but Butland managed to smother it.
Kane missed a golden opportunity to double Spurs’ advantage before half time but shot poorly wide of the post
Kane also managed to shoot over the crossbar from just four yards out, although the flag had already gone up for offside
Butland manages to palm the ball away from the head of a diving Kane, however the striker managed to get his goals
Son was not finished yet, though. A few minutes later, he picked up the ball in midfield and burst forward. He ignored a blistering run from Trippier on the right and instead played an inch-perfect pass to Eriksen, who was free in the middle. Eriksen took a touch and lashed his shot past a helpless Butland.
Stoke did pull a goal back ten minutes from the end when Lloris came to claim a deep corner but was comfortably beaten to it by Shawcross, who at least cancelled out his earlier own goal by nodding the ball into an unguarded net.
Spurs almost re-established their five goal cushion immediately when Son dribbled past half the Stoke defence from the right to tee the ball up for Eriksen but his right foot shot was brilliantly saved at close range by Butland. It was a small measure of consolation for the Stoke keeper at the end of a difficult day.
Stoke youngster Tom Edwards was given his second Premier League start – the first came in the 7-2 defeat at Manchester City
Stoke started the game on the front foot, Mame Biram Diouf guiding a header on target under pressure from Eric Dier
Spurs gained control after opening the scoring however, Eriksen testing Butland with a long range free kick
Son was a constant threat to the Stoke defence, at one stage making a 70 yard run from the edge of his own area to shoot
There were a significant number of empty seats at Wembley, with Stoke on a cold day in early December not proving a draw
Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino greets opposite number Mark Hughes before the Saturday afternoon encounter