Watch: EPL | Harry Kane’s hat-trick helps Hotspur thump Stoke City

02/27/2017

Riding on Harry Kane's third hat-trick in nine games, Tottenham Hotspur hammered Stoke City 4-0 to move to the second place in the English Premier League points table. This victory also helped Hotspur reduce the points difference to just 10 behind table-toppers Chelsea.

In the 14th minute of the game, the England forward struck his opening goal by taking the bottom corner from Christian Eriksen as the ball dropped to him in the area near his left foot. Kane slammed his second goal in the 32nd minute to give Hotspur a 2-0 lead.

Kane’s third goal came when Eriksen rolled a free-kick into his path, and Kane's low effort from 25 yards took a huge deflection off Crouch on its way into the net, with Grant powerless to stop it. Dele Alli scored the other goal.

With the hat-trick, Kane took his tally to 22 goals in all competitions this season, the third consecutive campaign in which he has surpassed 20 goals.

Praising Kane’s splendid performance, Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino said, "[Harry Kane] is playing at a very good level. He's one of the best strikers in the world. He deserves it because he's a great professional. It was a fantastic performance. It was a good response from the team.

"Ten points is a big gap [to Chelsea] - but we keep going and believe. We try to put on pressure."

Despite the loss, Stoke City are still 11 points clear of the bottom three teams in the fight to avoid relegation.