For all the brilliance of the Premier League’s foreign superstars, it’s a 21-year-old Englishman who was barely known outside north London before the season that is arguably making the most startling impact this campaign.
Forget Diego Costa, Sergio Aguero, Alexis Sanchez and Robin van Persie. Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane is the top-scoring player in English football this season with 20 goals in all competitions, and a first call-up to his national squad is surely just around the corner.
No wonder Spurs signed Kane up to a new five-year contract this week. “He just looks to me now like a real monster on the pitch,” England assistant coach Gary Neville said. “He can do it all. “The next defense Kane looks to plunder is Arsenal’s in the north London derby on Saturday, one of two match-ups between local rivals in the 24th round of the league.
The other comes at Goodison Park where resurgent Liverpool makes the short trip across Stanley Park to visit Everton in the Merseyside derby.
With league leaders Chelsea and second-placed Manchester City facing games against struggling sides in Aston Villa and Hull City, respectively, much of the focus this weekend is on the race for the other Champions League qualification spots.
Six teams, separated by seven points, are seemingly fighting for two places and four of them play direct rivals on Saturday.
Third-placed Manchester United visit eighth-placed, West Ham and it is fifth against sixth when Arsenal, who trail fourth-place Southampton on goal difference alone, tackle spurs at White Hart Lane. Liverpool, meanwhile, visit Everton, having climbed to within four points of the Champions League places with a haul of 16 points from a possible 18.
Kane has already shown he does not respect reputations this season, with his best game of the season coming against what was at the time the league’s meanest defense. He scored twice in Spurs’ 5-3 win over Chelsea on New Year’s Day and Centre-backs John Terry and Gary Cahill just couldn’t cope with a player who only made his Premier League debut in April last year.
Arsenal’s defense has tightened up considerably in recent weeks, coinciding with the return from injury of France international Laurent Koscielnki.Arsenal has kept four clean sheets in it’s last five games and are arguably the form team in the league. However, Arsene Wenger’s team will need to be at its sharpest to keep out Kane, who has scored eight goals in his last eight league games. “This is a massive game and it is all about the bragging rights,” Arsenal winger Theo Walcott told the London Evening Standard newspaper. “It is one of the biggest games for both sets of fans and this year it is going to be tight.”
Liverpool’s trip to Everton will be Steven Gerard’s last Merseyside derby before he leaves Anfield for the Los Angeles Galaxy at the end of the campaign.The Liverpool captain, 34, made his 700th appearance for the club in Wednesday’s 2-1 FA Cup win at Bolton Wanderers and manager Brendan Rodgers has backed him to sign off in style against old foes Everton.“He’ll want to win, like he does every time,” Rodgers told a press conference on Thursday. “How will he deal with the emotion of it being his last? Like he has all the others — by being focused on the team getting a result.”
Southampton’s top-four bid was hit by a 1-0 loss to Swansea City last weekend and on Saturday they visit second-bottom Queens Park Rangers, who are without a manager following Harry Redknapp’s resignation.
