London, May 13: Tottenham revived its hopes of beating Arsenal to the final Champions League qualification position by overwhelming its fierce north London rival in a 3-0 win in the Premier League.
Harry Kane scored twice – including one from the penalty spot – and Son Heung-min added the other just after halftime on Friday to move Tottenham one point behind fourth-place Arsenal, which had centre back Rob Holding sent off in the 33rd minute when the score was 1-0.
There are two games remaining for each team and fifth-place Tottenham’s finish to the season looks easier than Arsenal’s. While Spurs face two of the bottom four in Burnley and already-relegated Norwich, Arsenal must travel to Newcastle before a home game against a resurgent Everton.
Arsenal was responsible for its own downfall in a way, with full back Cedric Soares barging into Son at the back post for the penalty that Kane rolled into the corner in the 22nd minute.
Holding, already booked for pulling back Son, then opted to stick out an elbow to block off the South Korea forward rather than track his run following Eric Dier’s ball over the top of the Arsenal defence.
Holding connected with the face of Son, who slumped to the ground, and was shown a second yellow card in the 33rd minute.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta refused to comment on either the penalty or the red card, but his anger was evident.
Arteta chose not to bring on a specialist defender to shore up the defence – centre back Ben White, returning from injury, remained an unused substitute – and, within four minutes, Arsenal fell further behind.
Son swung over a corner from the right, Rodrigo Bentancur headed the ball toward goal, and Kane stooped to head home at the back post from barely a meter out.
Son moved one goal behind Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah in the race to be the league’s top scorer by curling home the third goal from inside the area in the 47th minute after Kane had been tackled just as he was about to shoot on the turn.
Son has 10 goals in his last eight league games and is on 21 for the campaign, his best yet for Spurs. (AP)
