Finally, 15 games into an already gruelling season, Jose Mourinho named Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Gareth Bale in the same starting XI against West Brom at the Hawthorns.
An end-to-end contest was eventually settled by one of Tottenham’s star forwards, with Kane nodding in the game’s only goal from a Matt Doherty cross two minutes from the end.
Here are how Tottenham’s five key players fared.
Son Heung-min – 5/10
Of Tottenham‘s all-star trio it was the Premier League’s joint-top goalscorer Son who had the game’s first clear chance inside the opening quarter of an hour.
A well-worked move involving Bale, Kane and Tanguy Ndombele – three components of Tottenham’s front four – ended with the fourth, Son, uncharacteristically taking five touches when two would have been ample, allowing Semi Ajayi precious time to make a crucial intervention.
Son’s telepathic understanding with Kane has underpinned Tottenham’s best performances in recent weeks and the duo combined again midway through the second half, only for Son to see a tame effort easily smothered by Sam Johnstone.
Those two instances summed up Son’s afternoon: it was an indecisive, ineffective display from a player who has been devastatingly ruthless in the opening weeks.
Harry Kane – 7/10
An assist in the midweek win over Ludogorets in Bulgaria took Kane to 10 assists in 13 games in all competitions this season, highlighting the creative role that he has taken on in Jose Mourinho’s tactical setup.
The bulk of those assists have come from Tottenham’s talisman dropping deep and sending searching balls for Son to scamper onto and the expectation has been that with another runner to pick out in Bale, Kane would become even more of a quarterback.
There were glimpses of that at the Hawthorns, Kane looping a ball on for Ndombele to pick out Son and then almost finding Bale with a searching clipped pass into the area with his left foot. But the further Kane retreated in search of possession, the happier West Brom’s defenders would have been.
As the clock ticked further towards the 90 minute mark and Spurs sought the winner, Kane reverted more to his prototype, taking pot-shots in-and-around the penalty area, only to be thwarted time and again by West Brom’s blue and white wall of defenders.
Of Kane’s seven efforts on goal, four of them were blocked, but with his one shot on target all game, he delivered the knockout blow, looping a header over Johnstone for his 14th goal of the season.
Gareth Bale – 6/10
“It’s the natural evolution of things,” said Mourinho when asked why the time was right to thrust Bale into a Premier League starting line-up for the first time since May 2013.
Having arrived at the club carrying a knee injury, Bale has been gradually reintegrated back into the Spurs side with starts in the Europa League and cameo appearances in the Premier League. Spurs supporters have had to wait patiently for the prodigal son to really return.
Nobody expects Bale to scale the heights of that final campaign at White Hart Lane when the Welshman’s 21 goals and four Premier League assists secured him a clean sweep of awards but last Sunday’s header against Brighton showed that he can still provide match-winning moments as he enters the twilight years of a glittering career.
One of those 21 goals was a stunner on this very ground but there was to be no repeat performance this time around. More time is required for Bale to become tuned into his fellow attackers.
Eric Dier – 8/10
One of the Premier League’s best attacks was expected to steamroll the Premier League’s worst defence but it was an awkward afternoon for Tottenham that required plenty of digging in against a determined West Brom side.
Eric Dier and the rest of his defensive colleagues might have anticipated a quieter game, particularly after the Baggies’ chief creative spark Matheus Pereira was ruled out after testing positive for Covid-19.
However, Slaven Bilic’s side caused Spurs plenty of problems and Dier had to be at his best to repel their attacking threat, making seven clearances and winning six aerial duels to keep them at bay.
From being ostracised under Mauricio Pochettino, Dier is indisputably Mourinho’s main man at the back.
Sergio Reguilon – 7/10
With Bale and Son subdued, much of Tottenham’s attacking thrust came via Sergio Reguilon’s exuberant forays beyond the halfway line with the Spanish left back frequently pressing the issue against West Brom’s low-block defence.
Only Kane fired off more shots on goal than Reguilon – 7 to 3 – while the former Real Madrid man nearly notched his third league assist of the campaign by teeing up substitute Carlos Vinicius who drew a superb stop from Johnstone.
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