EPL

Nottingham Forest 0-2 Tottenham: Kane at the double to bring up 200 league goals

By Sports Desk August 28, 2022

Harry Kane scored twice and missed a penalty as Tottenham maintained their unbeaten start to the Premier League season with a 2-0 win at Nottingham Forest. 

Kane finished beyond Dean Henderson to score the 200th league goal of his career early on, though Spurs were forced to withstand long periods of pressure as Forest produced a lively display.

Antonio Conte's team should have made the points safe when Steve Cook bizarrely handled on his own goal-line 55 minutes in, but Kane's spot-kick was well saved by Henderson to his right.

Yet Kane atoned as he nodded home Richarlison's cross in the 81st minute, making the Spurs striker the Premier League's joint-third highest goalscorer in the process. 

Tottenham needed just five minutes to hit the front through a swift counter-attack, as Kane took Dejan Kulusevski's pass in his stride before stroking into the bottom-left corner from 18 yards out. 

Kane was almost joined on the scoresheet by Son Heung-Min when he bent an effort over the bar 10 minutes later, before the England captain sent a low strike narrowly wide of the bottom-right corner.

But Forest gave as good as they got, going close through long-range efforts from Lewis O'Brien and Morgan Gibbs-White before the break.

Forest should have levelled when Ryan Yates headed Gibbs-White's cross narrowly wide, but were then indebted to Henderson for making his second penalty save of the season to deny Kane after Cook's handball.

However, the Manchester United loanee's heroics ultimately counted for nothing when Richarlison's outside-of-the-foot cross provided Kane with a simple finish to wrap up a win that marks Tottenham's best start to a season since 2009-10.

What does it mean? Solid Spurs keep up strong start

While Tottenham's early-season performances have not always been convincing, they have gone unbeaten through their first four Premier League games for just a second time in the last 13 years.

The last time Spurs did so (when picking up eight points in 2016-17), Mauricio Pochettino led them to a second-placed finish and their first defeat of the season came after 13 games. Their promising results will raise hopes Conte can lead them to a similar achievement this term.

Kane brings up another landmark

Having broken the Premier League's one-club goalscoring record against Wolves last week, Kane needed just five minutes to score his 200th league goal on Sunday, later recovering from a missed penalty to net for the 187th time in the Premier League.

It puts him joint third in the Premier League's all-time goalscoring charts, alongside Andy Cole. Only Alan Shearer (260) and Wayne Rooney (208) are now ahead of the England captain, who has scored against 31 of the 32 teams he has faced in the Premier League. Only Brentford have prevented him from finding the net, doing so twice.

Dejan-vu as Kulusevski creates again

Kulusevski made a valuable contribution to Spurs' successful bid for a top-four finish after arriving from Juventus in January, and the Sweden international has picked up where he left off this season.

After laying on the opener, the 22-year-old has two Premier League assists this season and 10 since his debut in February. No other player has teed up as many goals in the competition in that time.

What's next?

Tottenham face London rivals West Ham in their next Premier League outing on Wednesday, while Forest visit champions Manchester City.

Related items

  • Nottingham Forest’s double European Cup winner Larry Lloyd dies aged 75 Nottingham Forest’s double European Cup winner Larry Lloyd dies aged 75

    Nottingham Forest have paid tribute to double European Cup winner Larry Lloyd, who has died at the age of 75.

    Lloyd, who also won the First Division title and UEFA Cup with Liverpool, was a key player in the Forest side which won the European Cup in 1979 and 1980 under manager Brian Clough.

    The Bristol-born defender won four caps for England and went on to manage Wigan and Notts County following the end of his hugely-successful playing career.

    In a statement on the club’s website, Forest wrote: “We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Larry Lloyd.

    “Part of the Miracle Men, Larry was an integral player in the Forest side that memorably won back-to-back European Cups in 1979 and 1980, making 218 appearances for the club in total.

    “We send our condolences to Larry’s friends and family at this truly sad time. Rest in peace, Larry.”

    Lloyd began his career with Bristol Rovers before being signed by Liverpool manager Bill Shankly for £50,000 in 1969.

    The Reds won the league and UEFA Cup double in 1973, with Lloyd remarkably playing in every game that season.

    After two years at Coventry, Lloyd moved to the City Ground in a £60,000 deal and went on to form a vital centre-half partnership with Kenny Burns as Forest beat Malmo in the European Cup final in 1979.

    Forest retained the trophy a year later against Kevin Keegan’s Hamburg.

  • Richarlison ‘wanted to give up’ after battling depression following World Cup Richarlison ‘wanted to give up’ after battling depression following World Cup

    Brazil and Tottenham forward Richarlison said he was in a “depression” after the 2022 World Cup.

    The 26-year-old was his country’s top scorer in Qatar, with three goals in four games as they went out in the last 16, but he struggled mentally after the tournament.

    He has admitted he saw a psychologist, who “saved my life”.

    “I’d just played in a World Cup, man, at my peak,” Richarlison told ESPN Brasil. “I was reaching my limit, you know? I don’t know, I’m not going to talk about killing myself, but I was in a depression there, and I wanted to give up.

     

    View this post on Instagram

    A post shared by Richarlison (@richarlison)

     

     

    “Even I, who seemed to be mentally strong. After the World Cup it seemed like it all fell apart.

    “I think the therapist, like it or not, saved me, saved my life. I only thought rubbish. Even on Google, I only searched for rubbish, I only wanted to see rubbish about death.

    “Before I went to training, I wanted to go home, I wanted to go back to my room because, I don’t know what was going through my head. I even went and told my dad I was going to give up.

    “It’s kind of sad to talk like that, you know? What I went through after the World Cup, discovering things here at home from people who had lived with me for over seven years. It is crazy.

    “To go to my father, who was the guy who chased my dream with me, and say, ‘Dad, I want to give up,’ is crazy.”

    Richarlison, who has scored 11 goals in 26 games for Spurs this season, was sceptical of seeking therapy prior to his episode, but now recommends it to anyone struggling.

    “Today I can say, look for a psychologist, if you need a psychologist, look for one because it’s nice for you to open up like that, for you to be talking to the person,” he said.

    “Today a (psychologist) came to thank me for taking this to the world of football, to the world, outside the pitch too, because it is very important and, whether we like it or not, it saves lives.

    “I had this prejudice before, I thought it was nonsense, I thought I was crazy. In my family, there are people who think that anyone who goes to a psychologist thinks they are crazy, they think they are insane.

    “But I discovered this and thought it was wonderful. The best thing, really the best discovery I’ve ever had in my life.”

  • It will be complicated – Gareth Southgate expecting Euro 2024 selection headache It will be complicated – Gareth Southgate expecting Euro 2024 selection headache

    Gareth Southgate says he is facing a “complicated” Euro 2024 selection choice given England’s potential fitness and availability issues heading into the summer.

    This is the first time since the 2018 World Cup that the 57-cap former defender is having to pick a 23-man squad for a major tournament after it was expanded to 26 following the coronavirus pandemic.

    But Southgate could name even more than that at the provisional squad announcement on May 21 as the England boss will have injury concerns to deal with and the late arrival of key players.

    The final squad is not due to be submitted to UEFA until June 8, but some may not even have joined up with the team by that point due to cup finals, denting numbers for the warm-up friendlies against Bosnia and Iceland.

    Asked how many extra headaches returning to a 23-man squad will throw up given the issues he is juggling, Southgate said: “Yeah, it’s going to be complicated, because firstly the injury situations that we have.

    “Some will be back playing at the weekend, some will be back playing in a couple of weeks, some will be really close to the end of the season.

    “Then we’re going to have the European finals, the FA Cup final and the two friendlies that we’ve got ourselves.

    “It’s inevitable we’re going to be naming a longer squad, which is what we did before the Euros here even though we were dealing with 26 then.

    “We really don’t know (how many will be in the provisional squad) because there are so many questions on the injuries at the moment.

    “But we’ve gained valuable information about so many players this this week.”

    Absentee-hit England suffered their first defeat in 15 months in Saturday’s late 1-0 loss Brazil at Wembley, where Jude Bellingham scored an even later goal to salvage a 2-2 draw against Belgium three days later.

    Southgate had to experiment far more than he expected during the friendly double-header due an unprecedented injury list that left him without a third of the 40-odd players on his long list against Brazil.

    Bukayo Saka, Harry Kane, Harry Maguire, Kyle Walker and Sam Johnstone all withdrew from the squad over the course of the camp, with Jordan Henderson unable to feature in either match.

    “I had a plan on Saturday night for Tuesday that got blown apart in 12 hours, so to have a plan for something in two and a half months’ time at the moment is faintly ridiculous.” Southgate said.

    “We know some of the core parts of that, we know who’s been able to play at that level, who our very best players are.

    “And the rest, we’ve got a lot clearer picture of what people are capable of from the two games that we’ve played.

    “We’re just going to see how people are when they come back into form, whether they can do that fitness-wise with their clubs.”

    Anthony Gordon, Ezri Konsa and Kobbie Mainoo all made their debuts over recent days, with Ivan Toney registering his first goal – from the penalty spot – against Belgium on his first international start.

    The quartet boosted their chances of making the plane to Germany, with 18-year-old Mainoo’s stock arguably growing the highest.

    The Manchester United talent staked his claim for a midfield spot with out-of-sorts Kalvin Phillips omitted, Trent Alexander-Arnold injured and Henderson unavailable.

    Mainoo won his first cap off the bench against Brazil and, just four months after making his first Premier League start, was named player of the match for his display on his full England debut on Tuesday.

    “He gives us a different profile of midfield player to anything else we’ve got,” Southgate said.

    “He’s adapted and adjusted brilliantly. You can’t believe his age, really, that he’s just taking it all in his stride as he has.”

    Asked if he was confident Mainoo could shut out the noise after such an impressive full debut, he said: “I think, firstly, he seems very mature, very calm. He knows he’s making his way.

    “We’re absolutely delighted with what he’s done, first and foremost, and then there’s a lot of the season still to be played with his club.”

© 2023 SportsMaxTV All Rights Reserved.