#3 Standout player: Harry Kane
Match: Tottenham Hotspur vs. Stoke City
Harry Kane scored a superb hat-trick in the first half of the game before turning provider for Dele Alli for Spurs’ fourth of the evening, thereby putting the game out of sight for the visiting Potters.
The Englishman’s first was a wonderfully struck goal from within the box from an acute angle but it was so well-placed through the defender’s legs that goalkeeper Lee Grant had no chance of stopping it. This also marked Kane’s 100th goal for Spurs, a stupendous achievement indeed.
The second, a clinical left-footed finish from a Christian Eriksen corner, had all the hallmarks of the strike of an adept centre-forward while the third came with a share of luck.
A free kick rolled into the Spurs striker’s path found the net but was deflected off Peter Crouch en route. That does not take away from Kane’s performance though and he could as well have had at least a couple more goals – one a curling effort which missed by a whisker and the other drawing a diving save to the right from Grant.
Kane also set up his team’s fourth goal on a platter for Alli, who nudged it into the roof of the net beyond a stunned and humiliated Stoke defence.
Honourable mentions: Cesc Fabregas (vs. Swansea City), Gylfi Sigurdsson (vs. Chelsea), Idrissa Gueye (vs. Sunderland), Wilfried Zaha (vs. Middlesbrough), Jamie Vardy (vs. Liverpool)
