Harry Kane raced into the lead for the 2016-17 Golden Boot with a four-goal salvo as Tottenham Hotspur thrashed Leicester City 6-1 in their penultimate English Premier League tie at the King Power Stadium on Thursday.
Already assured of second-place in the league table, the Lilywhites could have been forgiven for taking it easy but against last season’s champions, they turned on the style in the final 30 minutes.
Kane had scored five minutes before the hour-mark when Son Heung-min cut-back the ball into his path to give Spurs the lead and the Korean then doubled their advantage nine minutes later when he finished off Dele Alli’s dinked through-ball.
The away side were utterly dominant in the first-half but somehow could not find the target for a second time despite bossing possession and camping in the Foxes’ half.
In fact, Leicester managed a goal a minute before the hour-mark, against the run of play to spark hopes of a dramatic comeback. Young left-back Ben Chillwell took advantage of Hugo Lloris scrambling to get back in goal to calmly finish down the middle.
Spurs were stung by that goal and put Leicester to the sword from then on. Kane doubled his tally four minutes later, heading home after Victor Wanyama had headed Toby Aldwerweireld’s cross-back across goal.
Son then put daylight between the sides with a low effort which skidded across goal beating Kasper Schmiechel in the 71st minute.
Kane got his hat-trick with one minute of regulation time remaining, cutting inside from the left and finishing powerfully on the near post before he added his fourth in the 92nd minute to go two goals clear of Romelu Lukaku in the Premier League goal-scoring charts.
Mauricio Pochettino’s men play already-relegated Hull on Sunday, while Everton travel to Arsenal and the odds are heavily in Kane’s favour to scoop home the Golden Boot despite having missed close to three months owing to injury.
It will be a remarkable individual season for the Spurs striker even as his team will finish bereft of a single trophy, but will be taking many positives for next year.