Tottenham’s Harry Kane celebrates scoring their first goal with teammates Dele Alli and Victor Wanyama on Sunday. Dylan Martinez / Reuters
Tottenham’s Harry Kane celebrates scoring their first goal with teammates Dele Alli and Victor Wanyama on Sunday. Dylan Martinez / Reuters

Title challengers again? Tottenham look quietly terrific, and Harry Kane could use rest anyway



Can Tottenham Hotspur mount a title challenge again this season? Mauricio Pochettino's men went so close in 2015/16. Although the final table shows them finishing third, 10 points back on Leicester, they were well in the title race with four games to go.

Their last two results, defeats to Southampton and Newcastle, were so obviously direct results of the psychological blow of losing their chance of winning the title because of the epic 2-2 draw at Chelsea.

Wipe away the first four games of the season (a defeat and three draws) and the final four (two defeats and two draws) and Spurs would have been champions.

The reason they rose above the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal as Leicester's main title challengers was because they had all the elements of a balanced title-winning side. City were lacking the defence, Arsenal were lacking the goalscorer but Tottenham had a bit of everything.

Hugo Lloris is probably in the top three goalkeepers in the league.

Their defence was the joint best, along with Manchester United, conceding just 35 times. They also got 10 goals from defenders.

More Premier League

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Each of their creative midfielders had a starring season. Dele Alli broke out of nowhere to win Young Player of the Year with 10 goals and nine assists. Christian Eriksen set up 13 goals and Erik Lamela finally justified his transfer fee with nine goals and five assists in 28 games.

And then of course Harry Kane improved on his 2014/15 season with 25 league goals up front.

So what has changed? Nothing, and Tottenham’s squad has got even better.

While a lot of the early season attention has been on Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea, Tottenham have quietly gone about laying the foundations for another title challenge.

Sunday's 1-0 win at home to Sunderland saw Spurs move into third place in the table, four points behind City.

They already have the best defence with just two goals conceded. Tottenham’s defensive unit was so strong last season that Pochettino felt no need to sign any additions.

The arrivals of Victor Wanyama, Moussa Sissoko and Georges-Kevin N'Koudou in midfield mean Pochettino has plenty of options to rotate, especially with Spurs hoping to maintain a Champions League challenge into the knockout rounds. Pochettino needed those options.

Wanyama in particular has slotted seamlessly into the line-up and given Spurs a bit more bite defensively.

The only real issue this season has been the lack of goals from Kane. When you play 4-5-1 and your lone striker loses his scoring touch, it can be a problem.

Last season it wasn’t an issue because Kane was on fire, but it was a good job he was able to play every game because Spurs had very little in terms of a backup striker. This time they have Vincent Janssen, fresh off a 27-goal season in the Netherlands.

Kane's confidence took a hit playing for England at Euro 2016 and he has barely recovered. Both his goals so far — at Stoke last week and the winner against Sunderland — have been tap-ins but at least he is back on the scoresheet.

But Sunday’s injury, in which he rolled his ankle, looks like it might keep him out for a few games. It could be a blessing in disguise though.

Firstly, it will give Janssen a run of games and chance to get up to the pace of English football. So far he has only started one game with four substitute appearances and it is clear he is snatching at chances a bit as he looks to impress.

If he fulfils expectations it will benefit Kane in the long run as Pochettino will feel confident resting his star striker when needed.

Also, it will show the rest of the Tottenham team that they can cope without their leading man. Tottenham have had 95 shots in their first five games. There is no way they don’t score goals regularly if they continue that type of production

And finally, Kane looked like he needed a rest. If he does miss some action, chances are the England forward returns from his time out refreshed and ready to return to form.

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THE SPECS

Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine 

Power: 420kW

Torque: 780Nm

Transmission: 8-speed automatic

Price: From Dh1,350,000

On sale: Available for preorder now

How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
  • The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
  • The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
  • The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
  • The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
  • The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
THE LIGHT

Director: Tom Tykwer

Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger

Rating: 3/5

ABU DHABI ORDER OF PLAY

Starting at 10am:

Daria Kasatkina v Qiang Wang

Veronika Kudermetova v Annet Kontaveit (10)

Maria Sakkari (9) v Anastasia Potapova

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Ons Jabeur (15)

Donna Vekic (16) v Bernarda Pera 

Ekaterina Alexandrova v Zarina Diyas

Student Of The Year 2

Director: Punit Malhotra

Stars: Tiger Shroff, Tara Sutaria, Ananya Pandey, Aditya Seal 

1.5 stars

The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

NO OTHER LAND

Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal

Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

Rating: 3.5/5