Harry Kane’s 267th Tottenham goal took him past Jimmy Greaves as the club’s all-time leading scorer and earned Spurs a hard-fought and potentially season-altering 1-0 win over Manchester City.
The noise was incredible as the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium came together to celebrate history and arguably the club’s greatest-ever player in the 15th minute, and again after the match, when Kane was interviewed on the pitch as supporters sang his name.
His winner was scuffed finish but characteristically clinical, and came after Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg won the ball from Rico Lewis on the edge of the box with a fierce press - similar to Dejan Kulusevski’s opening goal at the Etihad two weeks ago, when Rodrigo Bentancur forced a mistake from Rodri.
As soon as next month, Kane is likely to join an elite group of players to be top-scorer for their country and a club - including Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Pele - but there remains some doubt about how many more Spurs goals he will add to his remarkable total.
His contract is up at the end of next season and Spurs will be reluctant to allow him to enter the final year of his deal, leaving them under pressure to accelerate talks.
This performance, though, is exactly the type which may help to convince Kane that Spurs can compete with the best sides in the country and for major honours.
If they can kick on in the second half of the campaign, as they did last term after a 3-2 win at City, and return to the Champions League and challenge for the FA Cup, they will have more chance of convincing Kane his future remains in north London.
There was added significance to the goal in that it came against City, the club who tried to lure Kane away in summer 2020 and must surely now wonder what might have been.
