The whole stadium stayed to worship one of their own.
Harry Kane, record-breaker, Tottenham legend and curse of Manchester City lapped up the adulation after his coronation as the greatest goalscorer in the club’s history. Kane made it 267 goals for Spurs in all competitions, overtaking Jimmy Greaves, and became the third player to reach 200 Premier League goals after Alan Shearer (260) and Wayne Rooney (208).
England captain Kane could so easily have taken months, even years, to come back from the misery of missing a penalty in the World Cup quarter-final against France. Instead, Kane has come back, showed an incredible mentality and maybe even proved a point to City, who tried so hard to sign him 18 months ago, as he upstaged their goal machine Erling Haaland.
Of course, Kane wants to win trophies, but his loyalty deserves respect and the post-match celebration - they did a post match interview with the stadium announcer in front of a packed stadium - will take some beating. And they will not just build a statue for Kane at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but Arsenal will probably feel like making one for him at Emirates Stadium after Kane provided yet another twist in the title race.
Kane’s historic winner condemned City to defeat but they have also lost all five of their visits to Tottenham’s new stadium and have failed to score a single goal. City were woeful this time, lacking any ideas and inspiration and they are in serious danger of handing the title on a plate to Arsenal without much of a fight.
Tottenham were terrific, spurred on by Kane, but also led by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg who was an absolute menace in midfield as he ran himself into the ground and frustrated the life out of City. Once again, it ended in frustration for Pep Guardiola, who is still searching for the right balance and formula from a City side who far too often provide the right service for Haaland, while they have become leaky in defence.
Kane’s 15th-minute goal summed up City. Rodrigo Bentancur led the charge, Hojbjerg backed him up and, under pressure, City midfielder Rodri made a bad pass to put Rico Lewis under pressure and Spurs moved in for the kill. Hojbjerg nicked the ball, drove forward and then fed Kane, who almost scuffed his cross shot past City goalkeeper Ederson.
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12 years on from his first ever Spurs goal against Shamrock Rovers in the Europa League, Kane celebrated his piece of history. City tried to get going but another unfamiliar line-up - with Kevin De Bruyne only a substitute and a weak-looking defence - hardly helped. Riyad Mahrez crashed a shot against the crossbar in first half injury time and that was as close as they came.
It was Mahrez who eventually made way for De Bruyne as City pinned Tottenham back but created little, while the home side were increasingly dangerous on the break, with Kane going close again. City piled on the pressure but Julian Alvarez saw his shot deflected wide by Eric Dier, which typified Tottenham’s resilience in defence.
Eventually, there was one crack in Tottenham’s armour. Jack Grealish ran forward, Cristian Romero brought him down with a clumsy trip which earned him a second yellow card and Tottenham were down to 10 men in the 87th minute.
But they held firm. Guardiola said before the game that City pulled out of the race to sign Kane when the price went above £100million, but Kane has proved time and again that he is priceless and there is time to break more records.
