Pochettino: “I am in love” with Harry Kane

Harry Kane scored two goals for Tottenham Hotspur as they held on to defeat West Ham 3-2 at the London Stadium today. Kane also smacked the post twice as he searched for the hat trick that never came.

It was a dominant match for Tottenham’s talismanic striker, and afterwards his manager, Mauricio Pochettino, heaped praises on his performance, calling him one of the world’s best strikers and saying he is “in love” with him.

“Not only [the best] English [striker], I think in the world. For me Harry is one of the best in the world. It is too hard for me to find the word to describe him because in the last three seasons I am telling you how he is. I am in love, like the fans are in love, his team-mates are in love, not only because he scores goals but because how he is, a professional, humble.

“He is a very good example in football today, this big business. He must keep all the managers that managers like me appreciate a lot and that is why I say to you I am in love with him for these reasons.”

Us too, Poch. Us too.

Take away all the tee-hee in love Tottenham After Dark ESL jokes (I know, I made them too) and Poch is right to praise Kane. Since he got through the month of August he’s been on a tear in the Premier League, scoring four goals in three league games this month and six total goals in all competitions. Despite the slow start, he’s still tied for fifth in the Golden Boot race with Manchester City’s Gabriel Jesus and Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy.

Pochettino also said he was pleased with his team’s performance on Saturday, despite clinging to the win by their fingernails after Serge Aurier received his second yellow card in the second half, forcing them to play the last 20 minutes with 10 men. Spurs were up 3-0 in the second half before conceding two to the Hammers in an extremely nervy finish.

But Pochettino respects and rewards gritty play under difficult circumstances, and that’s what he got from his Spurs team today in east London.

“It was a very tough game. Overall I think we deserved to win. We were better. It's true that maybe the emotion in the last few minutes, they tried to score and dominate a little bit the game, but if we analyse the game we were better. Only after we started to play with ten men they began to dominate a little bit.

“I am so happy. The team showed different faces during the game. We played well, we competed, we fight in a very difficult thing, a derby. You know like me, I told you before, that this means more than three points. It can help us improve and learn and be better during the season.”