Manchester United Are In Great Form – Kane

Harry Kane is firing on all cylinders after a slow start to the season and full of confidence going into Sunday’s clash with Manchester United

Not only a chastening reminder that Manchester United’s treble is now a long time ago, Kane’s remarks also show the Tottenham striker in typical form: straightforward and polite, smart enough to find the courteous way to answer most questions. When he fronts up to the media, as he often does, Kane is diplomatic not defensive and underneath, a motivational message: if anything is possible in football, what might Spurs achieve? It wasn’t just the goals that earned him that MBE.

The reason for Kane playing nice about a match he cannot remember is Sunday’s big Premier League encounter: Tottenham v Manchester United at Wembley. Ole Gunnar Solskjær, he of the late, late knee-slide in Barcelona, arrives at the national stadium hoping to extend his run of five consecutive victories since taking temporary charge at Old Trafford. Spurs, meanwhile, are trying to keep a four-pronged trophy hunt running for another week.

“United have been in great form and are coming off some great results,” Kane says. “They are going to be confident and they are going to have a lot of energy. They won’t have played midweek like we have. We have to bring that same energy. That’s when we’re at our best, when we’re pressing and everyone is on the front foot. That is what we are going to need on Sunday.”

One way of looking at the midweek Carabao Cup match against Chelsea is that it offered a different type of challenge for Spurs in their encounters with fellow big-six clubs. Edged out of games against Liverpool and Manchester City in the Premier League, Spurs were outgunned by Arsenal in a shooting match. But Mauricio Pochettino’s side have also turned over both Chelsea and United in a manner that suggested they were the team with the experience and honours, not the other way around.