Kane stresses importance of good start as Spurs look to mount title challenge

Harry Kane knows how important it is for Tottenham to keep the early pace with Manchester City and Liverpool if they are to be Premier League title contenders.Both City and the Reds posted statement victories in their opening games of the season as the champions hammered West Ham 5-0 and Liverpool romped past Norwich 4-1.Spurs needed a late Kane brace to ensure they got off to a winning start, beating Aston Villa 3-1 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and the England captain says the two title favourites cannot be allowed to pull away.Fantastic win to start the new season. Congrats Tanguy on the debut goal. #COYS pic.twitter.com/qR9P8jXzBU Harry Kane (@HKane) August 10, 2019There is an early chance for Mauricio Pochettinos side to climb above City next week when the two meet in an early-season blockbuster.We kept up with them for a while last year but they blew ahead after January, Kane said. We have to make sure we get off to a good start.Liverpool set the standard on Friday night and City before us, so its important that we stay in touch as long as we can.We have full belief that we can go all the way but theres a long road ahead and weve got to be fully focused.Harry Kane scored two late goals as Tottenham battled back to beat Aston Villa (John Walton/PA)If Tottenham are going to challenge for the Premier League title then Kanes goals are going to be very important.The 26-year-old was delighted to break his duck at Spurs new stadium, netting for the first time at four attempts back in N17.Kane admits he enjoyed a summer of bliss, where he got married and was in the Bahamas for a month, thinking about scoring there, so was a relief to do it so soon this season. Its something Ive been thinking about for a while, he said. I missed a few games towards the back end of last year and had the summer to think about what that would be like, so it was nice to do it and help the team to get a victory.I had four weeks off, the most Ive had off in a few years now. Ive had a good pre-season, been here from the start, worked with the team and everyones feeling good.Weve still got work to do, Ive still got work to do in terms of fitness and things like that, but playing games will only help.Instant impact John McGinn and Tanguy Ndombele's goals in @SpursOfficial's 3-1 win against @AVFCOfficial saw #PL debutants from both sides on the scoresheet for the first time since @BurnleyOfficial (Scott Arfield) v @ChelseaFC (Diego Costa) in August 2014#TOTAVL pic.twitter.com/8g20s9dTJi Premier League (@premierleague) August 11, 2019I feel in a good place and hopefully I can continue doing what weve done.It was the introduction off the bench of Christian Eriksen that changed the game against Villa, who led through John McGinns goal before Tanguy Ndombele equalised for Spurs.The Danes future is up in the air as he will not sign a new contract and could leave the club before the end of the European transfer window on September 2.But Kane hopes he sticks around as long as possible.Harry Kane hopes to be a team-mate of Christian Eriksen for some time to come (Martin Rickett/PA)Obviously Ive been playing with Chris now for five or six years and we all know the qualities he has: the assists, the passes, the goals, he said.Whether he starts or is on the bench, the most important thing from all of our points of view is that he gives everything for the team.Obviously theres been speculation about his future but as long as hes training hard and playing as hard as he can when hes here, thats all we can ask for. What will be will be but were happy to have him.Thats out of my hands. From our point of view as players, we do it on the pitch. We commit to the club and do as much as we can and whatever happens outside of our control, happens.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
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