Tottenham 2 Fulham 1 – Kane and Hojbjerg strike to bag the points for Spurs despite lethal Mitrovic scoring yet again
HARRY KANE drew level with Thierry Henry as the king of London derbies with the decisive blow against Fulham.
Tottenham’s star man netted his 43rd goal in Premier League matches involving clubs from the capital, the same as Arsenal legend Henry’s record haul.
It added to Pierre Emile-Hojbjerg’s first-half opener and proved just enough for the three points, with Aleksandar Mitrovic’s late stunner making things interesting.
Spurs kept up their unbeaten start to the campaign with the victory, which moved them temporarily up to second behind arch-rivals Arsenal.
Results may have been strong so far this season for Spurs, but the performances have been underwhelming.
The draws at Chelsea and West Ham could easily have been defeats, while they only just beat a toothless Wolves at home last month.
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First-half displays had been particularly poor so it would have been encouraging for fans to have witnessed a much sharper opening 45 here.
Antonio Conte had shuffled his pack, as he had promised he would, with the hectic schedule of this unique, World Cup-dissected season beginning in earnest last week.
In came Richarlison for his first start - for Dejan Kulusevski, NOT the out-of-form Son Heung-min as some had expected - along with fellow full debutant Clement Lenglet.
Cristian Romero and Rodrigo Bentancur also returned from injury, while Fulham old-boy Ryan Sessegnon was recalled in favour of Ivan Perisic.
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The passing had more zip to it and the movement, especially of the potentially potent front three of Kane, Son and Richarlison, was good.
Kane has Alan Shearer’s Premier League record haul of 260 goals in his sights.
And the way he held off a defender and stung Bernd Leno’s fingers with an early blast was reminiscent of the division’s greatest scorer.
Spurs had the ball in the net on 11 minutes as a Son cross looped into the corner.
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Kane may or may not have touched it on its way, but regardless of whether he did, the England captain was in an offside position in front of Leno and the goal was chalked off.
It was just the kind of lucky strike Son could have done with falling for him to get off the mark for the season, having shared last term’s golden boot with Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, but referee Stuart Attwell made the right call.
The interplay between the attacking trio continued to impress as Richarlison, darting past Tosin Adarabioyo, squared for Son whose effort deflected out for a corner.
The South Korean went even closer just after the half hour as Kane, who had controlled Lenglet’s fizzing pass beautifully, clipped the ball over the top for him.
Son chested it down but then crashed the ball against the crossbar, summing up his luck in front of goal right now.
Timewasting has become the early scourge to this season and Fulham were at it too, with Kenny Tete booked for doing so on 36 minutes.
Four minutes later, though, Marco Silva’s men in black fell behind.
Son gave the ball back to Hojbjerg, who played a neat one-two with Richarlison before coolly firing into the far corner for his second goal of the season.
Conte’s men stepped it up after the break and went close with a flurry of chances.
First, Eric Dier, whom Conte had urged to score more in the pre-match press conference, blazed over from close range.
Richarlison was then played in by Kane but his shot was too weak and Leno saved comfortably.
The German stopper’s next stop was far more impressive as he pushed a Sessegnon effort destined for the far corner the other side of the post.
In between those two saves, Hugo Lloris pulled off a top one of his own as he acrobatically tipped over Mitrovic’s deflected effort.
Spurs had tried to sign Dan James from Leeds in the final days of the transfer window but he ended up at Fulham on loan instead, where he was always more likely to get more gametime.
The Welshman was introduced on the hour, along with Chelsea and Arsenal old-boy Willian, also signed on deadline day.
But it did little to stop the wave of attacks his side were facing and with 15 minutes to go, Kane made it 2-0.
Spurs burst forward with Sessegnon feeding Son, whose poor cross was not cleared properly, allowing Spurs’ left wing-back to seize the rebound.
His shot was blocked, possibly off Tosin’s arm, but before a penalty could even be considered, Sessegnon leapt onto the loose ball and squared for a just onside Kane to tap home.
Tottenham’s talisman was withdrawn moments later, as Conte looked to keep him fresh for Wednesday’s Champions League curtain-raiser at home to Marseille.
Yet Spurs’ work was not quite done as Mitrovic held off a weak challenge from Romero and curled beautifully into the top corner with seven minutes to play.
Fulham threw on former Spurs striker Carlos Vinicius as they pushed for a late leveller.
And they almost had one, through that man Mitrovic again, in the final minute.
The Serb fired a shot which looped off Romero and had Lloris scrambling, just about pushing it round his post.
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Spurs thought they had killed it off for good when Richarlison tapped home Sessegnon’s cross, but it was ruled offside.
Still, the three points were eventually sealed, thanks to more capital gains from that man Kane.