London: Tottenham retained their spot in the top four of the Premier League, inflicting a 3-1 defeat on Nottingham Forest. A double strike by Harry Kane from a header and a penalty kick, took his tally to 20 goals in the league for the sixth time in nine seasons.
Tottenham manager, Antonio Conte said: “He can take a penalty kick in a blindfold. We’re talking about a world-class striker and today Harry was a good example not for the goals he scored but his commitment and desire.”
Tottenham were without a win from their last three matches and Conte said: “We needed to bounce back and show we have a strong mentality. In this type of situation, the morale can be really low. Instead, I saw the right spirit, the right fight and the right desire. Today in my players I have seen fire in their eyes. There are many important teams in this race, for us to finish in the top four is like winning the Premier League.”
Nottingham Forest posed little threat during the first half. Later in the half they had a fine chance when Jonjo Shelvey had a shot deflected wide of the post. By then Spurs were two goals up and Richarlson had an early goal disallowed for off-side. The first goal came in the 19th minute from a cross by Pedro Porro for which Kane rose above Serge Aurier to head across goal giving no chance to Keylor Novas.
A quarter of an hour later the lead was doubled when Joe Worrell fouled Richarlson in the penalty box after an excellent Spurs move and Kane planted the ball in the centre of the net, the Spurs captain showing no signs of nerve after missing the last penalty kick he took in Qatar, in the World Cup.
Forest showed considerable improvement in the second half and were much more fluent making the game more open. Aurier came close to scoring with a firm header from a cross but Fraser Forster made a superb reflex save punching the ball over for a corner.
Spurs made it look all too easy with their third goal in the 62nd minute. Richarlson put in two crosses from the right, the first was intercepted well by Worrell but the second went to Heung-Min Son who beat Aurier’s challenge and scored with a left-foot drive inside the far post.
Spurs went close to scoring in the 78th minute when a sliding Richarlson could not reach the pass from Son and a minute later Son missed a chance when his shot on target was too weak, he realised straightaway putting his hands to his head.
With nine minutes remaining, Forest got a consolation goal with Worrell nodding in from a corner which was flicked on to him by Felipe.
Forest manager, Steve Cooper said: “We just weren’t aggressive enough. I didn’t like us in the duels, the one-v-ones, it just wasn’t competitive. The second half was more positive but we gave ourselves too much to do.”
English Premier League results on Saturday:
Bournemouth 1 (Billing 28) Liverpool 0
Crystal Palace 0 Manchester City 1 (Haaland 78-pen)
Everton 1 (McNeil 1) Brentford 0
Leeds 2 (Bamford 40, Harrison 78) Brighton 2 (Mac Allister 33, Harrison 61-og)
Leicester 1 (Daka 39) Chelsea 3 (Chilwell 11, Havertz 45+6, Kovacic 78)
Tottenham 3 (Kane 19, 35-pen, Son 62) Nottingham Forest 1 (Worrall 81)
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