What City could have got: Kane grabs late Tottenham winner
MANCHESTER, England (AP) - No wonder Pep Guardiola once branded Tottenham the Harry Kane team. No wonder Manchester City pursued four rebuffed bids to sign him.
There he was - still in a Tottenham jersey - in the fifth minute of stoppage time on Saturday, putting the ball in the City net for a second time.
How galling for Guardiola. The striker he was so determined to sign engineered a twist to the title race by inflicting a 3-2 loss on the Premier League leaders that gives more than just a glimmer of hope to chaser Liverpool.
'œLet's just forget,'ť the City manager said, determined not to revisit the ill-fated pursuit of Kane moments after the defeat. "The quality with the ball ... the whole of the U.K. knows it.'ť
The country - and far beyond - didn't only see it with the winning header after Riyad Mahrez's penalty had looked to have rescued a point for City earlier in added time after Cristian Romero's handball.
Kane saved his most complete display of an underwhelming season for the visit to the Etihad Stadium .
There had already been a perfectly weighted pass from Kane that released Son Heung-min to set up Dejan Kulusevski for the opener after four minutes.
Then the England captain restored Tottenham's lead in the 59th minute after İlkay Gündoğan's equalizer in a move he started with a high cross. Son combined with Ryan Sessegnon before the ball was returned to Kane, who arrived unmarked by the six-yard box to lift a shot into the net.
'œHe is an unbelievable player and an unbelievable guy," Son said of Kane. 'œWorking alongside him is a big honor.'ť
There was frustration when Kane put the ball in the net again only for the goal to be scrubbed out by a correct VAR offside decision in the 74th minute.
But in a tenacious performance, with effective pressing beyond his scoring contributions, Kane was pushing to the end. So when Kulusevski whipped a cross into the penalty area with the full time whistle approaching, Kane got himself into space to nod into the net.
'œIt was a crazy game," Kane said. 'œWe worked so hard for so long and to concede a penalty in the last minute was heartbreaking. But credit to the boys, we found a chance at the end and I managed to put it away.'ť
No wonder Tottenham wanted far more than the 100 million pounds ($136 million) City was offering last August, and even that might not have been enough to sell Kane.
City had looked like it was cruising to its title defense. Now the 15-match unbeaten run is over. Liverpool is only six points behind with a game in hand and with a meeting between the front-runners still to come in April.
Just as the season began in August, Tottenham beat City. So much has changed since then.
Nuno Espirito Santo has been replaced as manager by Antonio Conte. A three-match losing streak had bruised the Champions League qualification push. Now, though, Tottenham is within four points of the top four with two games in hand on Manchester United.
'œTo grind out the result we did was very special," Kane said. 'œWe have high standards of ourselves and have got ourselves in a position where we can really fight for the top four.
'œThe performance we put out there today shows we are fighting to the end. Hopefully we can use this as momentum going forward. What we have to learn is how to be more consistent over a long season."
___
More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports