VAR, Aguero the GOAT, Liverpool's unbeaten run - 5 Talking Points from this weekend's Premier League action

#3 Can Southgate find a replacement for Kane for England?

Danny Ings scored his 14th league goal of the season against Leicester

The news that Harry Kane will be out until the spring with a serious hamstring injury didn’t just mean problems for Tottenham Hotspur, it also likely rang alarm bells for England boss Gareth Southgate, too. The Three Lions next play in March – a pair of friendly games against Italy and Denmark – but if Kane does not return until late April, there’s every chance he won’t be fully match-sharp by the start of Euro 2020 in June.

Thankfully for Southgate, it appears that at least a handful of potential replacements for his star striker exist. This weekend’s matches saw 3 of those candidates stand out yet again with more goals. Firstly, Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham hit the net again in the Blues’ 3-0 victory over Burnley. The goal was Abraham’s 13th in the Premier League inside 21 appearances, and once again the 22-year old led the line excellently for Frank Lampard’s side.

Abraham has all of the tools to be England’s primary backup to Kane; he plays alongside a pair of wide forwards in a similar system to the one preferred by Southgate, helps to link up attacking moves by holding the ball up well, and has brilliant finishing instincts. And yet, somehow the London-born hitman isn’t the highest English goalscorer in the Premier League right now.

That title belongs to Jamie Vardy of Leicester, but ignoring him as he’s retired from international football, two other strikers currently sit above Abraham. One is very much a fixture in Southgate’s thoughts already; Marcus Rashford scored another 2 goals this weekend, helping Manchester United to a 4-0 win over struggling Norwich.

United fans might have some fair gripes with boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but there’s no disputing the fact that he’s getting the best out of Rashford this season, as he already has 19 goals in all competitions, more than he’s ever managed in any previous season, and he also has 4 assists. With that said, he’s rarely been deployed as a central striker in recent matches – and all of the evidence seems to point to his best position being as a wide forward.

Which brings us to the third man in discussion – Southampton’s Danny Ings. Arguably, there is no hotter striker in the Premier League right now. The former Liverpool man has been on fire since September, and has now scored 14 goals in the Premier League to elevate the Saints into 12th place, far above a relegation battle.

There’s no disputing Ings’ current hot streak, and his finishing ability has looked phenomenal too – as we saw with his sneaky finish in Southampton’s 1-2 win over Leicester this weekend. But it’s also hard to shake the idea that this could be nothing more than a purple patch; Ings is 27 years old and has never displayed form anything close to this before.

So it seems like Southgate has quite the decision on his hands in the upcoming weeks regarding a replacement for Kane – but the England boss should be happy that he has the options.